Joaquín Paz is passionate about chess and its history. In his youth he was champion in provincial and zonal tournaments, as well as being champion in the Taino Games of the University of Camagüey. Over time, he became the teacher of several generations of chess players in the territory.

Joaquín tells with passion how in the first half of the 20th century, despite the fact that chess was a sport only for elites, Camagüey came to have two national champions, although the first of them, José Fernández Migoya, was not born in the Province. The other, Rosendo Romero Delgado, had the pleasure of being a friend.

Rosendo was the first provincial champion of Camagüey in 1919, a title that he preserved for more than 40 years. Romero Delgado would also be the first national monarch outside of Havana and a player with such skill that he was capable of challenging José Raúl Capablanca himself.

“There was a National Championship where there was a triple tie at the top and then Capablanca, to decide the winner, awarded a start and a pawn advantage to the three competitors, in two games. Rosendo was the only one who managed to make him two draws! Later he went as the first place to a Central American Championship; he beat Edward Lasker and was considered Central American Champion as well.”-Commented Joaquín Paz.

After the Revolutionary triumph, chess became a sport accessible to the entire population and began to be taught in schools, an event that brought its fruits in the territory.

“Chess achieves the massiveness it has today thanks to Che Guevara, who, by the way, in 2000 the International Chess Federation awarded him the title of Knight of FIDE. I am a child of that era of mass chess. The José Raúl Capablanca Provincial Academy has played a decisive role in the training of players, but it should be noted that in the 1980s the province had three academies. Hence the results in the National School Games of the time, we managed to win these tournaments several times.”

Other national champions in the territory are Eleazar Jiménez, Néstor Vélez and the young Carlos Daniel Albornoz, who also became the second player from Camagüey to obtain the title of Grand Master.

The province also has a long history of victories in school and youth games and several monarchs in children’s tournaments in both sexes.

Currently, two of the most outstanding figures in the science game throughout the country are Agramontinos, Maestra Fide without distinction of sex Ineyming Hernández and Grand Master Carlos Daniel Albornoz, which confirms that this city has a close link with history and the present of chess in Cuba.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García