Spain enters the semifinals after knocking down the favorite Azerbaijan

The Spanish team has guaranteed its best result in history today in Jerusalem.

Although it is true that this Rapid World Cup is devalued by the numerous absent stars, it is no less true that they have defeated the great favorite, Azerbaijan, in the quarterfinals (2-2 and 2.5-1.5) with their gala team .

The other three countries that will play for the medals are Asian, and they will face each other like this on Wednesday: China-Spain and Uzbekistan-India.

"It has been an afternoon of terrible nerves, but the truth is that the prospect of winning has always been there, although with several ups and downs," explains the president of the Spanish Chess Federation (FEDA), Javier Ochoa de Echagüen, currently in office captain because David Martínez suffers from a bad cold with fever.

"Although this World Cup is in the rapid mode [actually, semi-rapid, with 45 minutes per player plus an additional ten seconds per movement] and there are important absences, our result is a great historical success," he stressed.

Ochoa had a kind of premonition a few minutes before the quarterfinals were to start, when he noticed that the four Spaniards were already seated and ready to play before the Azerbaijanis arrived.

"Maybe it would be interesting to do a scientific study that measures whether players who arrive earlier win more often," he commented, in the sense that this attitude may show a good mentality to succeed.

The facts confirmed that the president's hypothesis was not far-fetched.

Jaime Santos had no problem on the first board to draw with the 14th in the world, Shakhriyar Mamediárov.

And David Antón was even better with black against the 11th, Teimur Radyábov.

Before, Alexéi Shirov had also made a draw, with Gadir Guséinov.

The danger was seen on the fourth board, where Danil Yuffa was clearly worse, but the position was complex and double-edged in mutual time trouble, so Rauf Mamédov offered him to share the point.

Certainly the tension was enormous in the second moto.

To begin with, because Shirov came out of the opening very badly.

But that did not break the hope of the Spaniards because, on the fourth board, Miguel Santos had a strategically winning position shortly after starting.

In addition, Antón had a clear advantage, and it seemed that Jaime Santos was once again supporting Mamediárov's momentum.

There were a few minutes of great anxiety because, suddenly, Jaime Santos was worse, Shirov was still lost and Miguel Santos, 23, accused the enormous tension and responsibility, throwing away almost all his advantage with his only bad play.

However, Jaime, 26, confirmed that he is ready to enter the elite, starting a draw of enormous value.

And Miguel took advantage of an evaluation error by Mamédov very well to equalize the match.

Finally, Antón completed a Herculean task and defeated Radyábov, one of the most difficult chess players to beat in the last 25 years.

If one merely looks at the names and international rankings of the five Chinese contesting this tournament, one will deduce that it is China C or D, and that Spain must clearly win the semifinal.

But this evaluation is very wrong because if their games are analyzed the conclusion is very different: their real strength is well above their Elo points, perhaps because they leave little from China or because the Chinese Chess Federation does not send to the International (FIDE ) the results of all the tournaments it organizes.

Lu, Xu, Wen, Bai and Li are serious contenders for gold.

Their victory over Poland (2.5-1.5 and 2-2) has been clearer than the score indicates.

Something similar in terms of highly devalued Elo scores can be said about the Uzbeks, today's executioners of Ukraine, a rival in theory much superior, with Ivanchuk, Shevchenko, Volokitin, Kovalenko and Bernadski.

But Uzbekistan, current Olympic champion against all odds, has dominated (3-1 and 2.5-1.5) with players of little international fame: Yakúbboev, Sindárov, Vojídov and Vajídov, and will face India in the semifinals, winner of France in the tiebreaker (3-1, 1-3 and 2.5-1.5).

In other words, Uzbekistan aspires to gold again without its great star, Nodirbek Abdusattórov, 18 years old.

The Uzbek coach assures that this absence is due to the coincidence with another tournament, which is very difficult to believe.

Other sources consulted by EL PAÍS agree that Abdusattórov has refused to play in Israel.

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