BOGOTÁ – International grandmaster Gildardo Garcia died on Friday, a victim of COVID-19, announced the Chess League of the department of Antioquia. He was 66 years old.
Colombian champion 10 times, the first in 1977 and the last in 2006, García won the title of the Pan American Youth Championship in 1974.
García died in a clinic in Medellín, the city from which he was a native. He was the second Colombian chess player to achieve the status of International Grandmaster in 1991. The first was Alonso Zapata in 1984.
The pandemic worsens in Colombia, where the Ministry of Health had confirmed 1,870,179 cases and 47,868 deaths as of Friday.
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