The great Cuban master Lázaro Bruzón published a video on his Facebook account in which he responds with honesty and self-criticism to a follower who asks what happened to his competitive chess career.
In the 2.43-minute video, Bruzón acknowledges that his career lost consistency starting at the age of 23, precisely when he was ranked 26 in the world by the International Chess Federation, in 2005.
"I started to miss my schedule, an issue of indiscipline, of not organizing myself well," admits the chess player, who earned the title of Grandmaster at the age of 17 and was crowned youth world champion in 2000.
Bruzón recalls that someone warned him at that time: "You're doing everything you need to do to avoid doing things right and continuing your project." However, he admits that the self-confidence typical of youth prevented him from absorbing that advice.
"When one is young, there is a lot of confidence in one's talent, and there are many things that are not fully understood. One believes they are like all young people, who think they know everything," he points out.
The chess player identifies several factors that hampered his rise: a lack of discipline in training, the absence of a clear goal, and poor tournament selection. "Sometimes I didn't choose my best tournaments," he notes as one of the elements that impacted his performance.
Despite this stagnation, Bruzón achieved his highest Elo rating —2,717 points— in October 2012 and continued to win important tournaments. However, he never returned to ranking among the top 26 in the world. Currently, he competes under the American flag with an Elo rating of 2,555 points.
The key message of the video is directed at young people starting out in sports: “Sometimes success comes very quickly and we think we've achieved everything we want to do, but that's not the case. Success is also about maintaining that focus and consistency, because higher goals require greater sacrifice.”
Bruzón left Cuba in July 2018 and settled in the United States, where he studied Finance and remained involved with chess. Since then, he has become a critical voice against the Cuban regime and has stated that he will not return to the island until it is free and democratic.
This month, Bruzón stated that the indoctrination in Cuba "leads to fanaticism" and "impairs critical thinking," in another of his public reflections on the reality of the island.
The video garnered over 35,000 views, nearly 2,000 reactions, and 168 comments, reflecting the interest it generates among chess enthusiasts and the Cuban community abroad in the career and words of someone considered one of the greatest talents in Cuban chess of his generation.
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