GM Elier Miranda is the new champion of Cuba. A total of 12 chess players, representing seven provinces, participated in the National Absolute Championship, which took place at the Sports Museum in the city of Holguin from February 02-12, 2023. The 2022 champion, Yasser Quesada, skipped the 2023 edition.

With most of the participants closely rated, one could expect a very competitive 12-player round-robin, and indeed, it was the case. Heading into the final 11th round, Elier Miranda and GM Lelys Stanley Martinez were jointly leading the field with 7/11, a half-point ahead of GMs Carlos Daniel Albornoz and Luis Ernesto Quesada.

Elier scored a crucial victory over Havana's Omar Almeida on the white side of Pirc Defence, while his main competitor managed only a draw against Dylan Berdayes. With these results, Elier Miranda clinched his maiden national title and became the seventh Villa Clara player to win this tournament.

Photo: http://ahora.cu/

Elier Miranda (pictured above) joined the legendary Guillermo García (1974 and 1983), Guillermo Estévez (1975), Jesús Nogueiras (1984, 1991 and 2000), Rodney Pérez (1999), Yuniesky Quesada (2008) and Yasser Quesada (2022).

Carlos Daniel Albornoz and Luis Ernesto Quesada also notched up victories in the final round and caught up with Lelys Stanley Martinez, but the latter took silver thanks to superior tiebreaks. The runner-up became the only player to beat the champion and complete the event undefeated.

Final standings:

Photo: https://supercubadatabase.simdif.com and http://ahora.cu/