I once heard the following phrase that a teacher said to an enthusiastic and pretentious player, with the idea of calming him down: “I won more tournaments than you played in your life.” This high-sounding phrase could be endorsed by Diego Flores, although he is too humble for that. The truth is that Flores has won a lot of tournaments in his sports career, including seven Argentine championships; tournaments throughout the country, abroad, and has also won a large number of fast tournaments, another of his specialties.
You can say that he is a tournament winner. And now, to continue with the series, he has won the big Faogba tournament (Chess Federation of the West of Greater Buenos Aires), and not to be ambiguous, he also won the quick tournament that was played on the day off. Neither Sandro Mareco, in the planned tournament, nor Alan Pichot, in the rapid, his main rivals, could stop him. Diego Flores is one of the best Argentine players of all time.
His playing style is extreme. He usually seeks chaos, where his inventiveness and his ability to calculate produce positions of a notable aesthetic impression, while overwhelming his rivals. Furthermore, he lives in danger, is used to taking risks, and has nerves of steel in situations where most are prone to making mistakes. I once said that Flores was like the salamander, because he lives in fire.
The tournament, important, given the languishing high-level chess activity in Argentina, had other attractions, such as the presence of the grandmaster and popular tournament host of online platforms, the Spanish Pepe Cuenca, who took second place, while Mareco placed third. The big surprise was Llan Schnaider, 12 years old, who shared the places from second to fifth, finishing fifth by application of the tiebreaker system. This boy, along with 10-year-old Faustino Oro, are called to dominate Argentine chess in the coming years, and perhaps to alternate with the elite of the best in the world. It must be said that all this chess display is the result of the tireless work carried out for the good of Argentine chess by the “alma mater” of Faogba, the great player, and now also tournament organizer, Carolina Lujan. Carolina has long been a leader and political leader of women’s chess, not only in Argentina but also in the world.
I am transcribing the game that decided the fate of the tournament, the triumph of Flores, with black, over Cuenca.
Cuenca, Jose – Flores, Diego II FAOGBA International Open
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.Nc3 g6 7.Af4 Ag7 8.Da4+ Ad7 9.Db3 0–0 10.e3 Af5 11.Dxb7 Ch5 12.Dxa8 Db6 13.Nb5 Da5+ 14.Cd2 Nxf4 15.Dxa7 Nxg2+ 16.Rd1 Ca6 17.a4 Ch4 18.e4…
This last play by Cuenca is a mistake; We had to opt for something more solid like 18.Be2, but the whole opening variant chosen by White is too risky. Flores’ next move breaks the apparent logic of the position and disarms the white king.
