Leinier Domínguez Pérez (born September 23, 1983) is a Cuban and American

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

grandmaster. A five-time Cuban champion, Domínguez was the

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

blitz chess Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz ...

in 2008. He competed in the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2002 and 2004, and the

FIDE World Cup The FIDE World Cup refers to three different events over the years. Since 2000, it has been a major chess event organized by FIDE, the International Chess Federation. Since 2005, it has been a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament, form ...

in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015.

Career

Domínguez won the

Carlos Torre Repetto Memorial The Torre Memorial is an annual chess tournament played in honour of the chess legend Carlos Torre Repetto (1905–1978). It is played in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. The first edition was played in 1987, and from a relatively weak tournament, it ...

Mérida, Yucatán Mérida () is the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán, and the largest city in southeastern Mexico. The city is also the seat of the eponymous Municipality. It is located in the northwest corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, about 35 km (22 ...

, Mexico in 2001. He won the

Cuban Chess Championship In the second part of the 19th century, Celso Golmayo Zúpide had been generally accepted as Cuban champion since his 1862 match defeat of Félix Sicre. In 1912–1937 Cuban Championship as Copa Dewar occurred. Maria Teresa Mora was the first wo ...

in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2012 and 2016. Also in 2002, he shared first place with

Lázaro Bruzón Lázaro Bruzón Batista (born 2 May 1982 in Holguín) is a Cuban-American chess grandmaster. He is a former World Junior Champion, two-times American Continental champion, two-time Iberoamerican champion and five-time Cuban champion. Bruzó ...

in the

North Sea Cup The ''North Sea Cup'' was a short-lived hockey league that temporarily succeeded the Dutch Eredivisie from 2010-2012. It was the only professional ice hockey league in the Netherlands and the highest level of competition sanctioned by the Nederla ...

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

, Denmark. During the

FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 The FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 was held at the Almahary Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, from June 18 to July 13, 2004. It was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who beat Michael Adams in the final by a score of 4½–3½. He won about US$100,000 and ...

he reached the quarterfinals, losing to

Teimour Radjabov Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov (also spelled Teymur Rajabov; az, Teymur Boris oğlu Rəcəbov, ; born 12 March 1987) is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster, ranked number 18 in the world A former child prodigy, he earned the title of Grandmaste ...

in the tie-break. In the same year, Domínguez Pérez won the

Capablanca Memorial The Capablanca Memorial is a chess tournament that has been held annually in Cuba since 1962 in honor of José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera. At the time, it was the best paid tournament in the world. Since 1974 B and C tournaments have been held ...

for the first time. He won this tournament also in 2008 and 2009. In 2006, Domínguez won the ''Magistral Ciutat de Barcelona'' tournament in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

scoring 8/9 points, ahead of

Vasyl Ivanchuk Vasyl Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk ( uk, Василь Михайлович Іванчук; born March 18, 1969), also transliterated as Vassily Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster, Grandmaster ...

, with a

performance rating The PR (Performance Rating, P-rating) system was a figure of merit developed by AMD, Cyrix, IBM Microelectronics and SGS-Thomson in the mid-1990s (Cyrix announced it in February 1996) as a method of comparing their x86 processors to those of r ...

of 2932. In 2008, he won the "CPA" chess tournament and the 43rd Capablanca Memorial tournament. In the same year, he tied for first with Evgeny Alekseev at the

Biel Chess Festival The Biel International Chess Festival is an annual chess tournament that takes place in Biel/Bienne , french: Biennois(e) , neighboring_municipalities= Brügg, Ipsach, Leubringen/Magglingen (''Evilard/Macolin''), Nidau, Orpund, Orvin, Piet ...

, ahead of

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

. Domínguez Pérez finished second after losing the playoff. On November 8, 2008 Domínguez Pérez won the

World Blitz Championship The World Blitz Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid ...

, held at Almaty in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, scoring 11½ points out of 15, ahead of

Vassily Ivanchuk Vasyl Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk ( uk, Василь Михайлович Іванчук; born March 18, 1969), also transliterated as Vassily Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading ...

Peter Svidler Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (russian: Пётр Вениами́нович Сви́длер; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian chess grandmaster and an eight-time Russian Chess Champion who now frequently commenta ...

Alexander Grischuk Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015). He has competed in five Candidates ...

and many other top grandmasters. In June 2013 he won the

FIDE Grand Prix The FIDE Grand Prix is a biennial series of chess tournaments, organized by FIDE and its commercial partner Agon. Each series consist of three to six chess tournaments, which form part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship or ...

event in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

as a clear first in a field of twelve elite players, among them

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United Sta ...

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess International Grandmaster, grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champ ...

and

. In 2016, Domínguez Pérez shared 2nd−4th places at the

Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is an elite chess tournament held every summer in Dortmund, Germany. Dortmund is an invite-only event, with the exception that one slot at Dortmund is awarded to the winner of the annual Aeroflot Open in Moscow ...

with

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Cha ...

and

. Later in the same year, he won the individual silver medal playing board one for the Cuban team in the 42nd Chess Olympiad in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

. He was a second for Fabiano Caruana in the 2018 World Chess Championship In December 2018, Domínguez Pérez transferred federations to represent the United States. Through February and March 2022, Domínguez played in the

FIDE Grand Prix 2022 The FIDE Grand Prix 2022 was a series of three chess tournaments played between 4 February and 4 April 2022. The top two finishers – Hikaru Nakamura (winner) and Richárd Rapport (runner-up) – qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022,

. In the first leg, he won his pool with a 4/6 result by also defeating

Wesley So Wesley Barbossa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster and 3-time U.S. Chess Champion (in 2017, 2020, and 2021). He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ran ...

in rapid tiebreakers. In the third leg, he finished third in Pool B with a result of 3/6, finishing eighth in the standings with nine points. In April 2022 he participated in the

American Cup The American Cup (also known as the American Football Association Cup and the American Federation Cup) was the first major U.S. soccer competition open to teams beyond a single league. It was first held in 1885. In the 1910s, it gradually dec ...

. He won the 2nd place in the 2019 U.S. Chess Championship and 3rd place in the 2022 U.S. Chess Championship.https://www.uschesschamps.com/2022-us-championships/pairings-results. Retrieved October 19, 2022.

Notable games

Magnus Carlsen vs Leinier Dominguez-Perez, Biel 2008, Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, Adams Attack (B90), ½–½

Alexander Onischuk vs Leinier Dominguez-Perez, Biel, 2008, Gruenfeld Defense: Russian, Hungarian Variation (D97), 0-1

Evgeny Alekseev vs Leinier Dominguez-Perez, Biel 2008, Sicilian Defense: Najdorf, Zagreb Variation (B91), 0-1

Leinier Dominguez-Perez vs Alexander Morozevich, Corus 2009, Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, English Attack (B90), 1-0

References

External links

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dominguez, Leinier 1983 births Living people People from Havana Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Cuban chess players American chess players Cuban emigrants to the United States