Aiming for bigger titles

I want to win a bigger tournament
Joel Mayor Lorán

MANY kings have fallen before a young man from the Havana neighborhood of Güines. At the 2004 World Championship in Tripoli, Cuban chess player Leinier Domínguez defeated Russian players Vladimir Malakov, then Number 7 in the world ranking, and Alexei Dreev (10th). Two years later, in Barcelona, he felt invincible and defeated Ukranian Vassily Ivanchuk, sixth in the world with 2,741 ELO points. He proceeded to continue the heroic achievement.

The Idol of Güines has beaten giants such as Peter Svidler, Teimour Radjabov and Evgeny Alekseev. He finished in fifth place in Tripoli, won the Magistral Casino-Ciutat tournament in Barcelona 2006, came second in the fierce competitions of Biel and Sarajevo, both in 2008, among other noteworthy performances.

No other current chess player in the Americas has surpassed the coveted mark of 2,700 ELO points.

In October 2006, Leinier won an important victory over Vassily Ivanchuk.

He has even beaten in rapid games on the Internet – although he himself plays down the importance of this – the world’s number two on the International Chess Federation (FIDE) list, namely Russian Alexander Morozevich, who possesses the coefficient ELO score of 2,788 points.

“I enter a virtual club called the Internet Chess Club as part of my daily training. So do Morozevich, Aronian, Svidler, Carlsen, Grischuk…all the best players. Generally speaking, they are hard, fast games of no more than three minutes. I’ve won and I’ve lost.

Sometimes we take them more seriously, especially when we’re coming up to a real tournament; other times we just play for fun.”

“It helps you to calculate and improve your technique and rhythm. It’s an important tool; but the essential thing is to analyze the game, the preparation of your openings, the study of chess,” explains the likewise winner of this year’s Capablanca Tournament.

At just 25 years of age – he celebrated his birthday last March 23 – Leinier is currently 25th in the world rankings, with 2,708 ELO points. In terms of the future, he is hoping to exceed what he has achieved to date, and his rivals will be leaders such as Boris Gelfand, former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, plus Alexei Shiroy, Serguei Karjakin and other elite players.

“I have accumulated a certain amount of experience at this level. I think that if I prepare well, I might have a chance of winning. With chess practice, both physical and mental, you can reach tournaments at this level with the chance of finishing among the top few.”

“What defines it is constancy, seriousness, no time-wasting and training on a daily basis to keep yourself fresh in the openings, improving your level of calculation and studying the finales. This gives me confidence. I also try to be in the best physical shape possible, so that nothing affects me in terms of achieving the maximum level of concentration and performance.

“Today geography determines certain differences, given that, generally speaking, tournaments take place in Europe. I can’t participate as much as a German or a Russian player who lives there. Even if I’m invited, I have to face the time difference, fatigue from the journey and, sometimes, have to sit down at the table the minute I get there.

“Coming from Cuba perhaps gives me the edge on being included in events such as the Wijk aan Zee, Linares, Sofia, Dortmund, Tal Memorial tournaments…all by invitation. The organizers might well be keen to have a Latino among the competitors for reasons of diversity and because, since Capablanca – who was calculated to have a score of 2,725 being that the ELO system didn’t exist then – no one else from this region has scored 2,700.”

Specifically, attending these big competitions is one of his ambitions.

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