Chess World Cup: Mexican Martinez rides Indian wave

PANAJI: The Indian chess community is going gaga over Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara.Former five-time world champion V Anand tweeted about the Peruvian-turned Mexican GM’s surprise run in the ongoing World Cup, a hat tip, in particular, to his knight sacrifice in the second game of the fourth round match against Serbia’s Alexey Sarana.

national coach N Srinath had named the 26-year-old as one of his three picks to seal the Candidates spot.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Commentator and GM Harshit Raja has promised Martinez help to get an Indian SIM card. And that Martinez is working with an undisclosed Indian second cannot be ruled out.Going by the 57th seed’s pre-quarterfinal entry, it seems that even luck is on his side. Martinez was not planning to play in the Superstars Section of the Fujairah Global meet in UAE in Aug-Sept.

But his sponsors wanted him there.The UAE tournament was the same festival where many Indian players withdrew dubiously after starting the tournament. “My section was strong with a minimum entry level of Elo 2520-plus,” Martinez told Chessbase India. “I was not sure of playing. But I came up with one of my best classical results.”Seeded eighth in UAE, he finished third with 6/9 and a rating performance of 2727.The Elo 2644 player also conceded that he was fortunate to survive the first game of the 10-minute tiebreak against Ivic Velimir of Serbia. “I was one move away from losing,” he said. Martinez won 2-0 against strong candidate — Olympiad winner and No. 8 Nodirbek Abdusattorov. “I was proud about my second game,” he told the FIDE webcast.