By Romelio Milián (Special for Jaque)

Once again, and with brilliant success, the summit event of our calendar was held in the southern city of Cienfuegos during the months of May and June. With it, the Cuban Federation honours the memory of the genius José Raúl Capablanca. This year the customary congress format was maintained, but with a new variation: the inclusion of another group of masters. In this way it was possible to have a greater participation of home players, giving them the opportunity for international experience. On this occasion, 27 players representing 19 countries from all over the world came together in Cuba, which, beyond any doubt, constituted one more reaffirmation of our enormous organisational capacity.

In the Premier group, predictions centred on four names with chances of taking the place of honour: Andersson, Gulko, Beliavsky and Sigurjónsson. After an intense 14-round struggle, the uncertainty was resolved: Boris Gulko won unobjectionably, undefeated, obtaining his first major outright triumph in an international tournament. In this way Gulko restored to the USSR its hegemony in these classics. It is enough to recall that editions II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, IX and X had Soviet representatives as their winners. Without exaggeration, at present, from the point of view of practical strength, Gulko can be included as the second player of the USSR. In this tournament he displayed an extraordinary and homogeneous rhythm of play, which brought him victory before the final round had even been completed. Moreover, throughout the event, in none of his games was he in compromised positions, which further enhances his deserved victory.

Second and third places were taken by Yuri Razuvaev and Guðmundur Sigurjónsson. For the Soviet player these memorials will be unforgettable, since in them, successively, he has achieved the score required by FIDE for the award of the GM title, both times undefeated. On this last occasion Razuvaev benefited from luck after the withdrawal of local national master José L. Vilela, by optional prescription, who had defeated him in the first round. For the same reason our GM Silvino García had to be removed from the tournament table; both had played much less than half their games, and therefore their results were not counted in the final standings.

The Icelander Sigurjónsson, who had been very active in the first months of 1976, arrived here with the endorsement of his recent victory in the XVI Costa del Sol in Spain. Until the eighth round, everything seemed to indicate that this would be a continuation of his work on Iberian soil, but his encounter with Gulko came, and with it his only defeat of the tournament. That game may be regarded as decisive, since from that moment the fight for first place ceased, leaving Gulko as the sole “owner”.

Another interesting tie occurred in places 4–5 between Lothar Vogt of the GDR and Alexander Beliavsky of the USSR. Both became the tournament’s leading winners. Vogt began the tournament uncertainly, suffering two defeats. Already in the third round he made a great impression by beating the great favourite Andersson. By the ninth round he had only accumulated 50 percent of the points, but with his fantastic final sprint over the last five rounds, in which he scored 4.5 points, he managed to achieve his second GM norm. The culminating moment for the young German player came in his final game, where he had to obtain the full point at all costs. The obstacle was extremely difficult, since his opponent was Beliavsky. At the end of the first session, full of tension, he managed to prevail in an epic battle on resumption, thereby becoming the fourth GM of his country: Uhlmann, Knaak and Malich.

More had been expected of the former world junior champion Beliavsky than the position he achieved. It is enough to point out that in his first five games he could score only 1.5 points. Perhaps his best result in the tournament was his victory over Andersson.

Occupying sixth place is the winner of the two previous “Capablancas”, Ulf Andersson. Perhaps this may be considered one of the greatest surprises of this group. He was also the player with the highest Elo in the event, 2585. On this occasion Ulf was not even a shadow of the image to which he had accustomed us in our country, since for the first time in the five tournaments in which he has taken part he could not seize the top step. Andersson faced serious clock problems in almost all his games, and even lost one of them on time. In addition, on several occasions he found himself in difficult and disadvantageous positions, showing that he was not in the usual form that has earned him a place among the top fifteen players in the world.

Seventh place was taken by the Bulgarian Petcho Peev, who fought all the time for the GM norm, but towards the end his total lacked one precious point that would have fulfilled his hopes.

Next, without reaching 50 percent, there were two triple ties: places 8 to 10, and 11 to 13 respectively. In the first group were Alexander Sznapik, national master from Poland, Amador Rodríguez, international master from Cuba, and Károly Honfi, international master from Hungary, all with 6 points. Sznapik showed enough strength to achieve the IM norm in the near future; on this occasion he fell one point short of it.

The young Amador, despite drawing with the top three players in the table, suffered four defeats which pushed him away from better steps in the final placing. His Elo rating did not change. Nevertheless, he had the satisfaction of being the best-placed Cuban player. The best results by last year’s Masters-group winner were the victories he obtained over his two compatriots who hold the GM title.

Julius Kozma, international master from Czechoslovakia, Gerardo Lebredo, national master from Cuba, and Guillermo García, international master, also from Cuba, were involved in the other tie, all with 5 points. Kozma did not show much and had a poor start; he was only able to score one victory. Lebredo, in contrast to Kozma, had a happy start, obtaining in that period his only two victories, against Vogt in the first round and Beliavsky in the fifth. Everyone thought that his half-norm for IM was a mere formality, but in the following rounds his level of play fell sharply, since in the last nine rounds he could score only 2.5 points.

For Guillermito this tournament turned out to be his worst performance on the international stage. After a vigorous start which kept him at the head of the group until the sixth round, he was literally able to do nothing more in the remaining eight rounds, where he was defeated on six occasions. We hope that this “nightmare” will not happen again and trust in his prompt recovery after a setback of such magnitude.

The Spanish representative with a half GM norm, Juan Manuel Bellón, obtained a frankly adverse result. Given his qualities and conditions at the board, a better placing was to be expected for the Spaniard. It is fair to point out that towards the end of the tournament Bellón felt somewhat indisposed and was badly troubled by a strong and prolonged toothache, which caused great swelling in his face. All this, of course, conspired against him and influenced the pale showing made by the former champion of Spain.

For José A. Hedman this tournament was his first “crossing of swords” in an international event, and of course he scored few points; but the many he lost will bring him sufficient benefit through the experience gained, the fundamental goal set by this young talent before the event began.

We can state that the Premier group, in general terms, was acceptably combative, with the conquest of the full point being the fundamental motto. It is interesting to note that this edition nominally had only three grandmasters; however, at the next FIDE Congress four new players will be incorporated into that rank, and here, with more than sufficient and recognised strength, they represented their countries as international masters. They are Gulko, Razuvaev, Vogt and G. García.

Masters I

Because of his Elo and his high level of play, the candidate for victory was the national master Jorge Szmetan, from Argentina; therefore the prediction became reality, everything remaining within what had been foreseen. During the 17 rounds, Szmetan was the leader. In addition, with his ten victories, he won the trophy established by INDERUPEC for the player with the greatest number of won games. The 26-year-old player showed excellent chess qualities and great fighting spirit, which, in addition to giving him the place of honour, made it possible for him to complete the score required to become an international master. Only two months earlier, in the XVI Costa del Sol, he had begun this task; in other words, Szmetan needed only two consecutive tournaments to accomplish such a notable feat.

The sensation of this group was created by the young Cuban national expert José de Jesús Hernández, who achieved the same feat that Amador Rodríguez had achieved in 1974: a half IM norm without being a national master. With his secure play he played an intelligent tournament, where he showed at every moment that he would take risks only when necessary. He was also the only one to finish undefeated.

Carlos Cuartas, international master from Colombia, who last year had been co-winner of the Masters group, reached only third place, despite proving himself an untiring pursuer of the leaders. However, in critical situations he did not rise to the height of the circumstances.

Places 4–6 went to Boris de Greiff, international master from Colombia, Alberto Barreras, national master from Cuba, and Dennis Verduga, national master from Ecuador, all with 9.5 points. The first played a fairly good tournament, especially towards the end. Barreras was close to the half IM norm, but in the end his results were low. Verduga played with acceptable regularity.

National master Miguel Andrés was offered possibilities for a half IM norm, since the previous year he had been on the threshold of the door leading to such international recognition, but this time his results were not altogether satisfactory for fulfilling that requirement.

The performances of Luis Sieiro and Adelquis Remón, both national experts, may be regarded as good. International master Jesús Rodríguez completed the Cuban quartet that finished in places 7 to 10, all with 9 points. Rodríguez appeared excessively peaceful, drawing 14 games.

Of the remaining players, little can be said, since they did not reach 50 percent of the points available. It is worth highlighting the not very convincing performances of the international masters Durão of Portugal and Frey of Mexico. For the latter, Open tournaments seem tailor-made, where he really performs very well.

This Group I was characterised by showing the notable strength of our chess development, which has in fact made Cuba one of the four strongest and most promising centres in the Americas. It is worth noting that, of the two Masters groups formed, this was the only one that produced promotions to IM.

Masters II

In this group we may say that “everything stayed at home”, since the trio that tied for first place consisted of Cuban players. It is curious to note that not even the winners were able to fulfil the score required for the half IM norm. The most outstanding characteristics here were the large number of draws and the close struggle that was fought round after round. It is enough to point out that the difference in points from first place to eighteenth was only 5 points.

The engineer and international master Eldis Cobo was the winner on Sonneborn score, which earned him victory. Cobo played with his former energy and was very combative. In addition, to make up for his three defeats he had to go all out and beat eight opponents, becoming the winner of the group.

National expert Lázaro Bueno was only half a point short of the half IM norm, achieving the best performance of his young but promising career.

International master Julio Boudy led the table for a long time, but from rounds 11 to 17 he could only draw his games. Nevertheless, he reaffirmed his decision to remain at the successful level he achieved the previous year.

Fourth place was taken by another Cuban, national master Ciro A. Fernández, who together with veteran international master Eleazar Jiménez were the only players to finish undefeated in the group. Ciro played very safely, perhaps excessively so: the result was that he made 14 draws.

The Colombian international master Oscar Castro, who had qualified for one of the Interzonals, could not have a better tournament because of his five defeats. Something similar happened to his compatriot Gutiérrez; they, together with Quiñones, international master from Peru, reached 9.5 points.

José Miguel Fraguela, current champion of Spain, had a very poor performance, not even reaching 50 percent and showing the high figure of 82.4 percent of drawn games. Perhaps this “pacifism” by Fraguela can be explained by the exhaustion and fatigue produced in the young Canary Islander by his intense and consecutive participation...