Kalba Club bag top honours at Sharjah Chess Championship
- 31 Dec 2020
Gulf Today, Staff Reporter
The Kalba Club emerged winners at the Sharjah Chess Championship organized by the Sharjah Cultural and Chess Club over a period of two weeks.
Kalba team represented by four players including Hassan Khalifa Al Badwawi, Maryam Ihsan, Ahmed Khalifa Al Badwawi and Tim Majarkish finished on top with 47 points. Sharjah Girls Club comprising Reem Muhammad Al Jasmi, Anoud Issa, Mahra Fouad and Ohood Issa took second spot while Ittihad Kalba came third place after obtaining 39 points, tied with the second-place holder and moving away from him by the difference of the tie-break system.
A total of 18 teams representing 10 clubs including Khorfakkan Cultural Sports Club, Kalba Sports Club, Al Dhaid Sports Club, Al Madam Cultural Sports Club, Maliha Sports Club, Al Bataih Cultural Sports Club, Al Hamriya Sports Club, Al Thiqah Club for the Disabled, a Girls Chess Club, Sharjah, Sharjah International Chess Academy and Sharjah Cultural Chess Club took part in the competition, which was held online with a complete 17-round league system.
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The playing time was determined 10 minutes for each player with an addition of 5 seconds for each move played.
The tournament was supervised by the International Arbiter Omar Numan Al Ali, Assistant Secretary-General of the Sharjah Cultural Chess Club, and Greek grandmaster Efstratios Grivas, the Palestinian international coach Ihsan Jawad and the Philippine International Referee Marlon Konan.
The organizing committee gave away the prizes worth Dhs13,000 thirteen thousand to the winners, in addition to special prizes for the best player from each participating club.
Ali praised the level of the competition demonstrated by the teams participating in the tournament, pointing out that the desire of chess clubs in the Emirate of Sharjah to participate in such tournaments and sporting and community events were not strange.
Ragai Al Susi, executive manager of Sharjah Cultural and Chess Club, said: “The strategic goal of the tournament is to expand the activities and focus on spreading the sport of chess in particular, especially as it has started to witness a turnout and development in recent times due to its distinctive sporting value at the global and Arab level.
“We thanked all those responsible for the success of the competition.
We appreciate the efforts put in by the club in cooperation with the Sharjah Sports Council to organise the event. We were surprised with the number of participants, especially after almost a year of suspension of all activities around the world,” Susi added.