Havana, August 2 (RHC) – Cuban Jesús Adrián Almaguel won the gold medal in the under-18 category at the 36th Pan American Youth Chess Festival, held at the Guillermo Gaviria Correa Combat Coliseum in Medellín, Colombia, with an outstanding performance of seven points out of a possible nine.
Almaguel defeated American Aditeya Das in the final round, completing a run of five wins and four draws to take the top spot among chess players under 18.
The podium was completed by Arturo Eduardo Cáceres of Paraguay and Das himself, in that order. In addition to the continental title, Almaguel earned the title of International Master.
The Cuban delegation demonstrated a high level of collective play in the tournament, held using the Swiss system, which grouped competitors into six categories (under-8, under-10, under-12, under-14, under-16, and under-18 years old), according to the results published on chess-results.com.
In the under-14 open category, Leandro Álvarez and Diego Jiménez each scored 6.5 points, finishing in 9th and 11th place, respectively, with Álvarez remaining undefeated throughout the tournament.
Among the under-16s, Bryan León accumulated 6 points and finished in 14th place, starting with three consecutive victories.
In the women’s division, Mya Valdés (under-10) was one of the revelations, with 5 points and a four-game winning streak; Dayaris Fernández Martínez (under-14) scored 5.5 points; Alejandra Del Risco (under-12) also reached 5 points; and Ashly Armengol Venegas (under-16) finished with 4.5 points.
The 36th Pan-American Youth Chess Festival took place from July 26 to August 2 and brought together more than 900 players from 30 countries.
