{"id":43515,"date":"2026-02-12T22:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/?p=43515"},"modified":"2026-02-13T00:42:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:42:47","slug":"cuban-championship-lelys-martinez-wins-maiden-national-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/cuban-championship-lelys-martinez-wins-maiden-national-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuban Championship: Lelys Martinez wins maiden national title"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"43515\" class=\"elementor elementor-43515\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-adec007 e-flex e-con-boxed wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"adec007\" data-element_type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c09934c elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"c09934c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cuban-Championship-Martinez-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-43529\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cuban-Championship-Martinez-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cuban-Championship-Martinez-1-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cuban-Championship-Martinez-1-768x525.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5b04af0 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5b04af0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>GM <strong>Lelys Martinez<\/strong> emerged as the winner of the 2026 Cuban National Championship, claiming his first national title.\u00a0<\/p><p>The Absolute National Chess Championship, a nine-round Swiss event with classical time control, was held at the Girasol Hotel in Havana from February 4\u201312.<\/p><p>Seventh seed Martinez seized the lead after Round 4, but three rounds later, four players \u2013 including <strong>Jorge Roberto El\u00edas<\/strong> \u2013 caught up with him to tie for first place. In Round 8, the future champion scored a crucial victory over IM <strong>Michel D\u00edaz P\u00e9rez<\/strong> and surged ahead as all his rivals drew their games.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-bd1f4e4 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"bd1f4e4\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"665\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cuban-Championship-Hall.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-43516\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cuban-Championship-Hall.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cuban-Championship-Hall-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cuban-Championship-Hall-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f1fe3ad elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f1fe3ad\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Going into the final round a half-point ahead of three of his closest rivals, Martinez defeated IM Daniel Hidalgo with the Black pieces to secure the title with 7\/9. Meanwhile, <strong>Ermes Espinosa<\/strong> prevailed over FM<strong> C\u00e9sar Alejandro P\u00e9rez<\/strong> to take silver, finishing half a point behind the champion. The 2025 champion, Jorge Roberto El\u00edas, rounded out the podium with bronze, scoring 6\/9.<\/p><p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/s1.chess-results.com\/tnr1343624.aspx?lan=11&amp;art=1&amp;rd=9&amp;turdet=YES&amp;flag=30&amp;SNode=S0\">Final standings (chess-results)<\/a><\/strong><\/p><p>Photos: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/p\/Federaci%C3%B3n-Cubana-de-Ajedrez-100063636035791\/\">Federaci\u00f3n Cubana de Ajedrez Facebook<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GM Lelys Martinez emerged as the winner of the 2026 Cuban National Championship, claiming his first national title.\u00a0 The Absolute National Chess Championship, a nine-round Swiss event with classical time control, was held at the Girasol Hotel in Havana from February 4\u201312. Seventh seed Martinez seized the lead after Round 4, but three rounds later, four players \u2013 including Jorge Roberto El\u00edas \u2013 caught up with him to tie for first place. In Round 8, the future champion scored a crucial victory over IM Michel D\u00edaz P\u00e9rez and surged ahead as all his rivals drew their games. Going into the final round a half-point ahead of three of his closest rivals, Martinez defeated IM Daniel Hidalgo with the Black pieces to secure the title with 7\/9. Meanwhile, Ermes Espinosa prevailed over FM C\u00e9sar Alejandro P\u00e9rez to take silver, finishing half a point behind the champion. The 2025 champion, Jorge Roberto El\u00edas, rounded out the podium with bronze, scoring 6\/9. Final standings (chess-results) Photos: Federaci\u00f3n Cubana de Ajedrez Facebook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[240,297],"regular":[],"sticky-post":[],"class_list":["post-43515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chess-news","tag-cuba","tag-national-championship"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43515"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43532,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43515\/revisions\/43532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43515"},{"taxonomy":"regular","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regular?post=43515"},{"taxonomy":"sticky-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sticky-post?post=43515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}