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 dist ...

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, blit ...

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

, 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 w ...

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

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 Grandmaster ...

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

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 Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leadin ...

, 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 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, 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 ...

. Domínguez Pérez finished second after losing the playoff. On November 8, 2008 Domínguez Pérez won the World Blitz Championship, held at

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...

, 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 comment ...

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 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 St ...

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Champion. Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by wi ...

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 Ch ...

and

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

42nd Chess Olympiad The 42nd Chess Olympiad ( az, 42-ci Şahmat Olimpiadası; also known as the Baku Chess Olympiad), organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and comprising an openAlthough sometimes referred to as the "men's division", this ...

in Baku. 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 rank ...

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. 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