Thirty New Mexico chess players competed against a grandmaster in a simultaneous game on Friday night in Santa Fe. Three can now boast of beating a recognized expert on the game.
Andrew Flores from Albuquerque, Tim Martinson from Taos and Seneca Yellowhorse from Laguna defeated Fidel Corrales Jimenez, who had flown in from Boston for the New Mexico Championship Open 2021 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
Besides the world champion, grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can achieve. Dozens watched Corrales Jimenez work on the board at the start of the competition hosted by the New Mexico Chess Organization. It goes on Saturday and Sunday and includes cash prizes, and Corrales Jimenez will be there all weekend.
Leo Hill, 8, from Albuquerque, said he has been playing chess for nearly three years and that he was the first to arrive at the convention center for the simultaneous game. He said he loved the tactics of playing chess.
Annabelle Romero from Santa Fe said she has played chess for 45 years. She said she learned to play from her brother Louis Romero as a seventh grader in Peñasco. She said she was here to face a grandmaster because “it makes you think deeper”.
Corrales Jimenez said his opening move is different for each opponent, so neither player can copy anyone else’s moves.
“The faster I get rid of people, the easier it becomes for me,” he said.
Corrales Jimenez, a Cuban American, learned to play chess with his father at the age of 6 and began to compete a few years later. He played for Cuba at the Chess Olympiad and participated in two chess world cups. He has won competitions against the grandmasters Wesley So, Arkadij Naiditsch and Vasif Durarbayli.
Chess competitions around the world are run by the International Chess Federation, which connects nearly 200 national chess federations and acts as the governing body for competitions.
The game has been played for nearly 500 years, but organized competition didn’t begin until the 19th century.
Players across the state compete in local tournaments hosted by the New Mexico Chess Organization, which was founded in the 1960s.
The nonprofit group, which has approximately 400 members and hosts five to eight tournaments each year, also works with chess clubs, schools, and chess associations across the state. There are several chess groups in Santa Fe including De Vargas Mall Chess, Santa Fe Rooks, and Vista Grande Chess Club. Andrew Flores, the group’s president, said, “It’s been a long time since we had a grandmaster here.” He added that there are about 100 grandmasters in the United States; New Mexico produced a Jesse Kraai from Santa Fe.
Corrales Jimenez said he would take part in the tournament and then go home with no time to see the sights.
But his wife, Caroline Corrales, will be taking her back to Santa Fe this summer. Corrales, a soprano, has been invited to train at the Santa Fe Opera and will appear in Carmen, Falstaff and Madame Butterfly.
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