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Chinese Yu Yangyi wins Capablanca tournament

Xinhua, June 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chinese Grandmaster (GM) Yu Yangyi made news at the 50th International Chess Tournament "Capablanca in Memoriam" by winning the contest in the penultimate round in Havana.

Yu, a 21-year-old student with an ELO ranking of 2.715 strengthened his claim to the title on Wednesday evening with a win against Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon in only 14 moves.

The win gave him 6.5 points which was enough to secure him the title as it became impossible for the other contenders in the Elite Group to catch him up.

Yu was officially named the winner on Thursday.

This is the third consecutive year that a newcomer has won the oldest Chess tournament in the Americas.

The Chinese GM also managed to beat one of the Elite Group's records by winning five out of six matches which is one more victory than has ever been achieved in the group.

On Thursday, the final day of the tournament, Yu will face Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (Elo rating 2.720).

Also Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez (2.746) will face Russian GM Dmitry Andreikin (2.718) and Bruzon will take on Ukrainian Pavel Eljanov (2.718) on the final day.

Behind Yu in the scoreboard is Andreikin followed by Eljanov and then Dominguez. Nepomniachtchi and Bruzon are currently tied for fifth place.

In the First Group, German Vitaly Kunin (2.579) is leading and will win the group with a stalemate against Polish Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2.610). Endit