Shankland heading for the Elite by International Master Juan Röhl

Shankland heading for the Elite

The North American Grand Master Samuel Shankland triumphed brilliantly in the XIII Continental Absolute Championship of the Americas, held in Montevideo. The 27-year GM achieved 9 points out of 11, the result of 7 wins and 4 draws, in order to reach a Performance of 2774 and qualify for the next World Cup. In the second place ended the Argentine GM Diego Flores with 8.5 points and in the third there was a tie between 7 players, who played the other 2 places for the Cup, finally winning the Peruvian GMs Jorge Cori and Emilio Cordova.

The North American GM Fabiano Caruana continues with his ascent to the summit, with the triumph in extremis in the Altibox Tournament with 5 points out of 8 possible, after recovering from his initial defeat against the World Champion. Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen finished tied for second with 4.5 with American GM Hikaru Nakamura and Hindu World Ex-Champion Vishy Anand. Caruana's recent results set him up as a major rival for Carlsen's title since 2013.

Successfully finished the Second Classification Cup "MI Cleren Chirinos" with the triumph of the team "The Knights of the Bridge" with 15 points, the result of 5 Matches won and one lost, was seconded by the "Senior Team" with 13 points and in the third there was a tie between "Tecnoventas Team Galletero" and "Paul Morphy" with 12 points. At the individual level, the performances of the athletes Rolando Velásquez, Samuel Ramírez and Luis Ramos stood out.

Let's see next the beautiful auction, with white pieces, achieved by GM Shankland in his game of the last round, against the talented Argentine MI Tomas Sosa. After move 20 of the black, we reached the position that reflects the Diagram, where Samuel shows his great talent for the exact calculation of variants.

For any question or query please write to the email juanrohl@hotmail.com