Echesspedia

Cuba has a long chess tradition, its was the first place (Bayamo) were chess was played on the American continent (1518). The first main international event was the match between Steinitz and Chigorin 1889 following with the match Chigorin- Gunsberg in 1890. The second match for the title between Steinitz and Chigorin alsotook  place in Havana in 1892. Capablanca played Kostic in 1919 and the Cuban hero became world champion in the capital 1921. From 1962 the government begin to sponsor the annual Capablanca Memorial and in 1966 Cuba will welcome the participants of the 17^th Olympiad and the 37^th FIDE Congress.

The prestigious Chess Club of Havana was FIDE representative since 1928 until the Federacion Cubana de Ajedrez became full member at the Olympiad of Buenos Aires in 1939. Cuba participated to all Olympiads since then. It best score was a 6^th place in 1990. As one of the leading federation in America Cuba has participated to 4 World Team Championships: in 1989-7^th, 1993-10^th, 1997-9^th and 2001-7^th.

In 2008 Cuba was ranked 22^th among the countries (2561) with 13 IGMs, 36 IMs and a total of 212 titled players

Leading players were: Capablanca, S. Garcia, G. Garcia, Nogueira, Arencibia, Bruzon and Dominguez.

The national champions were:

1902 Corzo, 1939 Aleman, 1942 Gonzalez, 1943 Gonzalez, 1944 Fernandez, 1950 Romero and Cobo, 1951 Gonzalez, 1952 Gonzalez, 1955 Calero, 1956 Cabrera, 1957 Jiménez 1958 Ortega 1960 Jiménez, 1963 Jiménez, 1965 Jiménez, 1966 Ortega, 1967 Jiménez, 1968 S. García, 1969 Rodríguez, 1970 S. García, 1971 Rodríguez, 1972 J. Rodríguez, 1973 S. García, 1974 G. García, 1975 G. Estévez, 1976 J. Fernández, 1976 G. García,  1977 Lebredo, Vilela and Nogueira, 1978 Nogueira, 1979 S. García, 1980 Vélez, 1982 Hernández, 1983 G. García, 1984 Nogueira and A. Rodríguez, 1985 Armas, 1986 W. Arencibia, 1987 Borges, 1988 A. Rodríguez, 1989 Paneque, 1990 W. Arencibia, 1991 Nogueira, 1993 Borges, 1995 Becerra and Borges, 1996 I. Herrera and  J. Becerra, 1997 R. Vera and A. Rodríguez, 1998 Becerra, 1999 Perez, 2000 Nogueira, 2001 Vera, 2002 Dominguez & Delgado, 2003 Dominguez, 2004 Bruzon, 2005 Bruzon, 2006 Dominguez, 2007 Bruzon, 2008 Yuniesky Quesada, 2009 Bruzon, 2010 Bruzon.