Cuban Isan Ortiz to play as leader, others still competing at Zonal 2.3 chess championship

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 22 (ACN) After winning his third triumph in a row, Cuban Isan Ortiz will play today as the leader of the fourth round of the tournament,held in the capital of the Dominican Republic, which offers places for the next World Cup.

Ortiz maintained his perfect pace with success on Monday over the host Carlos Paul Abreu and now leads the standings,by better tiebreaker than Colombians Sergio Barrientos and Jose Gabriel Cardoso, and Dominican David Daniel Camacho.

Barrientos' most recent success was against Costa Rica's Sergio Duran, while Cardoso beat Colombian Alejandro Mateus and Camacho beat Santiago Avila, another from Colombia.

Cuban Carlos Daniel Albornoz drew with Costa Rica's Leonardo Valbornoz and sent to eighth place with 2.5 points.

Tuesday there will be a double round, in the first session Isan will move black pieces against Cardoso, while Barrientos and Camacho will face each other at another table.

In the women's section, there was no luck for either of the two Cuban players. Yerisbel Miranda lost to Colombia's Isabella Lopez and Yuleisy Hernandez suffered a setback against a well-known player from home, Cuban Zenia Corrales, now representing Mexico.

With these results, Yerisbel and Yuleisy dropped to fourth and fifth place, in that order and will need a good day today to keep the goal of winning the only World Cup place available to the women.