GM Cristóbal Henríquez Villagra (Chile) and WFM Maria Jose Campos (Argentina) emerged as the winners of the FIDE Zonal 2.5 open and women’s tournaments, respectively.

The event, jointly organized by the Paraguayan Chess Federation and Dr Andrés Riquelme in agreement with the presidency of Zone 2.5 and the Chess Confederation for America, took place at the facilities of the Hotel Internacional in the city of Asunción, Paraguay. Two spots in the FIDE World Cup 2023 were at stake in the open tournament, and one ticket was in the women’s competition.

GM Cristóbal Henríquez Villagra (pictured above, right) entered the open tournament as the rating favourite and did not disappoint. The Chilean GM turned in an excellent performance and punched his ticket to the FIDE World Cup with a round to spare. Despite losing in the final round and tying for first place with four other participants on 7/9, Cristobal came out on top thanks to a superior tiebreak (the highest rating average of his opponents).

The second place in the FIDE World Cup goes to the sixth seed IM Pablo Ismael Acosta (pictured below, left) of Argentina, who has the second-best tiebreak.  

Final standings open:

The women’s competition was very close, with four players sharing first place after seven rounds. At this point, WFMs Maria Jose Campos (pictured below, right) and Candela Francisco Guecamburu from Argentina scored crucial victories and came to the final round as joint leaders with 6/8. As they won again in Round 9, only a slightly better tiebreak tipped the balance in favour of Maria Jose, who qualified for the FIDE World Cup.

Final standings women:

Photo: es.chessbase.com and official website