Lima: A place to visit

by Dejan Bojkov
3/4/2016 – The Campeonato Continental Femenino, the American Continental Women's Championship, took place from 19th to 29th February and was played in Lima, the capital of Peru. After some tense moments rating favorite and Peruvian celebrity Deysi Cori won with 7.5/9. Dejan Bojkov, who worked as a coach at the tournament, sends a pictorial report and shares impressions of Lima.

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Lima: A place to visit

The American Women's Continental Championship was scheduled to take place at the end of the last year but for various reasons it was pushed further for the end of February (19-28). The host of the event was Lima, the capital of Peru.

Peru enjoys a burst of popularity in chess. It is not only the top GM Granda Zuniga who increased that interest. The famous family Cori is perhaps the main culprit. Jorge Cori recently joined the 2600+ club, while his sister Deysi was the top seed in Lima. It is not uncommon to see chess players on the TV. One of the days while I was walking around I saw an ad that featured Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Leo Messi and the Cori family.

Alexandra Estrada vs. Ashritha Esrawan

Peruvian kids do extremely well at the continental championship and as far as I am concerned usually succeed to win plenty of medals in almost all the age groups, as well as the team trophy. They are very successful at the world championships as well.

Perhaps this has something to do with the name of the president of their chess federation - Boris Ascue. Who incidentally happens to be named after the tenth world champion.

The venue was a hall inside the national stadium, downtown Lima. On a couple of occasions there were football matches and the ladies had to play their games in the morning. A total of thirty eight women competed for the medals and a spot for the knock-out Women's World Championship. Rating favourite was Deysi Cori, but at round seven the organizers announced that she already has a place at the Cup, thus freeing one more spot for one of the remaining participants.

Ingris Rivera

Cori justified her top position and was in the lead for almost all the tournament. However, she managed to pull the win only in the final two rounds. In real roller-coaster in which she could have easily lost both the games, she managed to show nerves of steel and outplay both her opponents (M.Zuriel from Argentina and country fellow Paula Paredes Bustamante) to win the tournament outright with 7.5/9.

The second place and the major price of the event went to the experienced Maritza Arribas from Cuba. Despite some hesitant games at the beginning she managed to achieve an excellent 7.0/9. A nice plus five score without any losses. Especially convincing was her final effort against Beatriz Franco Valencia from Colombia. By the way Beatriz and her twin sister Angela had a great tournament and if it was not the final unfortunate round they could have taken one of the very top places.

Miriam Parkhurst, México

Peng vs. Abrahamyan

It happened so that my student Ashritha Eswaran was the one to defeat Angela in the final round to  win the bronze medal. Angela deviated from a perpetual check but got her king into a mating net and this was everything. Ashritha had an excellent tournament with only one loss to her country-fellow Tatev Abrahamyan (who finished fifth). A third place in such a strong tournament is a great achievement for someone who had turned fifteen only recently.

One more player tied for the fourth place. This was the Argentinean WIM Maria Florencia Fernandez who recovered from a very poor start (1.5/4).

Standings after nine rounds

# Fav. País Título Nombre FED Rtg Puntos Des1 Des2 Des3
1 1
 
WGM Cori T. Deysi PER 2430 7,5 0,0 2279 50,5
2 2
 
WGM Arribas Robaina Maritza CUB 2333 7,0 0,0 2231 51,0
3 15
 
WIM Eswaran Ashritha USA 2149 6,5 0,0 2178 45,0
4 5
 
WIM Fernandez Maria Florencia ARG 2264 6,5 0,0 2068 41,5
5 3
 
WGM Abrahamyan Tatev USA 2324 6,0 0,0 2211 48,5
6 9
 
WIM Franco Valencia Angela COL 2197 6,0 0,0 2157 48,5
7 21
 
  Zarate Oyague Flor De Maria PER 1924 6,0 0,0 2113 42,5
8 17
 
WFM Paredes Bustamante Paula Eliz PER 2096 5,5 0,0 2218 49,5
9 14
 
WGM Franco Valencia Beatriz Irene COL 2153 5,5 0,0 2154 47,5
10 4
 
WIM Zuriel Marisa ARG 2295 5,5 0,0 2151 50,0
11 6
 
WIM Rivera Ingris COL 2262 5,5 0,0 2026 42,5
12 13
 
WIM Perez Rodriguez Jennifer PAR 2155 5,0 0,0 2173 47,5
13 19
 
WIM Fuentes Godoy Lilia Ivonne MEX 2062 5,0 0,0 2131 42,5
14 18
 
WFM Dominguez Laura Lucia COL 2078 5,0 0,0 2026 43,0
15 12
 
WFM Aliaga Fernandez Ingrid Y PER 2173 5,0 0,0 2007 45,0
16 7
 
WIM Castrillon Gomez Melissa COL 2215 5,0 0,0 1944 38,0
17 20
 
WIM Besso Guadalupe ARG 1996 4,5 0,0 2104 44,0
18 10
 
WIM Martinez Ayelen ARG 2193 4,5 0,0 2049 48,0
19 23
 
WIM Caballero Quijano Mitzy Mishe PER 1909 4,5 0,0 2046 37,5
20 25
 
WFM Parkhurst Casas Miriam MEX 1884 4,5 0,0 1937 36,0
21 29
 
WFM Garcia Contreras Ana PER 1759 4,5 0,0 1927 39,0
22 31
 
  Dongo Melanie PER 1741 4,5 0,0 1912 36,0
23 8
 
WIM Chumpitaz Ann PER 2209 4,5 0,0 1905 39,5
24 16
 
WIM Orozco Lina Yomayra COL 2118 4,0 0,0 1957 44,0
25 26
 
  Solis Chimoy Blanca PER 1869 4,0 0,0 1935 40,5
26 22
 
WIM Peng Jackie CAN 1922 4,0 0,0 1874 39,0
27 11
 
WGM Heredia Serrano Carla ECU 2185 4,0 0,0 1818 31,5
28 30
 
  Cosme Contreras Trilce PER 1757 4,0 0,0 1767 36,5
29 35
 
  Bohorquez Canizares Maria ECU 1574 3,5 1,0 1686 30,0
30 24
 
  Arias Cango Nathaly ECU 1888 3,5 0,0 1543 28,5
31 27
 
WCM Rodriguez Sofia COL 1794 3,0 0,0 1840 35,5
32 33
 
  Mostacero Velarde Isabella PER 1705 3,0 0,0 1817 41,5
33 36
 
  Oncoy Custodio Shantal Tania PER 1510 3,0 0,0 1719 38,5
34 37
 
  Francia Arzapalo Gianella PER 1486 3,0 0,0 1624 31,0
35 28
 
WFM Romero Antonella PER 1781 2,5 1,0 1799 36,5
36 32
 
WFM Bocangel Chavez Marjoire J. PER 1708 2,5 0,0 1496 29,5
37 34
 
  Estrada Cantaro Alexandra Fio PER 1635 2,0 0,0 1540 33,5
38 38
 
  Pescoran Machaca Mariabelen I PER 1299 1,0 0,0 1223 30,0

The game of the tournament, at least for me was played in round one. Ann Chumpitaz did not do well at the tournament but it was worth it if she can produce at least one game like that in her life. Judge for yourselves:

 

 

 

Marisa Zuriel

Closing speech

The winner: Deysi Cori

Ashritha Eswaran became third

Teacher and pupil: Dejan Bojkov and Ashritha Eswaran

Tatev Abrahamyan

The youngest participant

The participants

The Peruvians

 

Impressions of Lima

Dejan Bojkov with a view of Lima!

Tatev Abrahamyan and Dejan Bojkov

 

The Presidential Palace

Chinatown

One of the three rivers running through Lima.

The grave of Francisco Pizarro

Once again I was impressed by south America. Lima is the third largest city at the continent with population of ten million people. Nicely situated between three rivers and the Pacific ocean it has everything. Wonderful parks, churches, beaches, night life and above all people.

If you have a chance to visit this beautiful city look for Plaza Mayor, the Monastery of San Francisco, Museo Larco, the Historic center and the Barranco and Miraflores districts.

Do not miss a chance to taste the local delicacies - ceviche and guinea pig as well as the rich fruits salads and juices as well as the exotic drinks - chicha morada and  pisco.

 

Diego Cuellar, Dejan Bojkov and Ulises Cuellar

A special thanks to Mr. Ulises Cuellar who did everything he could (and even beyond that) to make us feel comfortable and at home in Peru!

Tournament site..

Dejan Bojkov, born in 1977, is a Bulgarian GM who qualified from the Sports Academy of Sofia as a trainer, a profession which he has followed in various countries. After his work as a trainer in Kavala (Greece) he trained ex World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova. Bojkov regularly reports for chessbase.com and chessbase.de. In 2009 Bojkov was champion of Bulgaria and member of the Bulgarian team at the European championships. Bojkov is the authorof a number of popular ChessBase DVDs and in cooperation with Vladimir Georgiev wrote the book "A Course in Chess Tactics" (Gambit 2010).

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