The Dominicans Leonardo Simo Paulino and Sahiean Polanco managed to win gold and bronze medals in the Central American and Caribbean youth festival held in Tegucigalpa with the participation of 12 countries.
With these two medals, Dominican chess continued to achieve success in international events, demonstrating the great progress of this discipline after winning the gold medal for the child Leonardo Simó Paulino in the sub 10 category.
Likewise, Sahiean Polanco Fernández won the bronze medal in the Under-12 category so that the Dominicans won two medals in the international sports fair.
Simó Paulino finished undefeated with 8.5 points out of 9 possible one of his most notable victories was against Liam Logan of Jamaica, he also soundly defeated Iván Herrera Gómez of Panama in the sixth round and in the ninth round to take the gold to Samir Álvarez Rodríguez of Honduras .
In the Under-12 Category, Sahiean Polanco Fernández achieved third position with 7 points out of 9 possible, thus securing the Bronze medal, defeating Taydan Balliram from Trinidad and Tobago in the last round.
The president of the Dominican Chess Federation, Dr. Pedro Domínguez Brito, stated that with these two medals Dominican chess continues to strengthen its structures in the minor categories with a good performance by the future stars of national chess.
“Both children have just obtained the international titles of CM, candidates for masters, in the case of Leonardo Simó Paulino he becomes the youngest graduate in the entire history of Dominican chess” explained Domínguez Brito.
“We heartily congratulate Irina Rodríguez and Darvi Crispín who are the coaches of Leonardo Simó Paulino, as well as Leonardo Estévez Polanco and Luis Bourdie who are the coaches of Sahiean Polanco Fernández.
The XVII Youth Chess Festival of Central America and the Caribbean 2022, was held at the Florencia Plaza Hotel in Tegucigalpa.
Leonardo Simó is a 5th grade student at the American School, while Sahiean Polanco Fernández studies at the Baldera Gil (EBG) educational center in Santiago de los Caballeros.
“With these results, our country continues to bear fruit in sports matters, we extend our gratitude to our work team headed by Lic. Braulio Ramírez as general administrator of the Dominican Chess Federation, who was in charge of the logistics of the participation of the Dominican delegation. added Dominguez Brito.