Dubai (Union)
The masters outperformed their lower-ranked competitors in the opening rounds of the Ramadan “Loyalty to Zayed” fast chess tournament, which has been organized annually by the Dubai Chess and Culture Club since 2002, in honor of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. It lasted two years, due to the Corona pandemic, in which the tournament was held in the “online” system.
After the first three rounds, 23 players topped the table with 3 points from 3 rounds, while the surprise of the first day was on the tenth table, where the young Saud Jaber Al Zarouni, player of Sharjah Club, managed to tie in the second round with Moroccan international professor Mukhles Al-Adnani, ranked tenth in the tournament.
The opening of the tournament was witnessed by Ahmed Khalifa Al-Thani, Vice-Chairman of the Club’s Board of Directors, International Referee and Organizer Mahdi Abdel Rahim, Chairman of the Laws Committee of the International Chess Federation, Chairman of the Referees Committee of the AFC, and Mohamed Al-Hussaini, Executive Director of the club, and a large gathering of players, coaches and parents.
This year’s edition of the tournament has a record participation of 210 male and female players representing 31 nationalities, and 23 players who hold the titles, including 13 international professors, led by UAE star Salem Abdul Rahman, Serbian Igor Miladinovic, Cuban Walter Arancibia, Azerbaijani Nadic Arkadic and Egyptian Ahmed Adly , the Moldovan Viorel Yurdachescu, and the Greek Evstatus Grivas.
In the most prominent confrontations of the fourth round, our player Salem Abdel Rahman will meet with Filipino Franz Barreto at the first table, and the second table will bring together a meeting between Ukrainian professors Alexander Zubarev and Serbian Igor Mladenovic. Our player Ibrahim Sultan will meet Cuban Walter Arancibia, and Turkmenistan’s Mehdi Guldieva will meet Azerbaijani professor Naidic Arkadic.
The total tournament prizes amount to 15,000 dirhams, allocated to the top ten places, and the first place prize is 3,000 dirhams, in addition to the championship trophy. The organizing committee also allocated prizes for the best player from the UAE and the best player from the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
The tasks of the Presidency of the Rulers were assigned to referee and international organizer Saeed Youssef Shoukry, assisted by the international Jamal Qassem and the international Marcel Augusto, the referee of the International Federation Salman Al-Taher, the local government Hamad Al-Shezawi, and the local government Majid Al-Abdouli.
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