Adly, Attar shine in Arab-African Chess Championships

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Egyptian grandmaster Ahmed Adly emerged winner at the first of its kind Arab-African Online Individual Open Chess Championships.

Adly, who is second best player in Egypt behind Bassem Amin, overcame Algerian Bilel Bellahcene in the final round to take the top honors. Both were locked in a hard-fought battle and tried their best to outplay each other. In the end, Adly managed to edge past Bellahcene. The Egyptian finished with 8.5 points. Bellahcene ended with 8 points.

Another Algerian player Mohamed Hadoush took third spot from Algeria while Egyptian grandmaster Adham Fawzy finished fourth with 7 points.

Last year, Adly won the Sunway Sitges International Online Chess Open, the first-ever open Swiss tournament held online with a classical time control. He defeated IM Liam Vrolijk of the Netherlands in the knockout final.

The event carried a prize purse of $10,000 and witnessed participation from top African and Arab players.

In the women’s category, Jordan’s Guida Attar bagged top honours after beating compatriot fellow Bushra Al Shuaibi in the final. They both ended with 8.5 points. However, Attar won the title after winning the tiebreak.

Jordan women’s coach, Sami Al Safarini, praised the achievement of both players and described it as “astonishing”.

“Women Chess players have always done well at big events but this really highlights their progress and we are so proud of Ghayda and Bushra,” she added.

More than 2,300 international players representing 48 Arab and African federations participated in the event organized online.

A grand closing ceremony was also held online platform which was attended Sheikh Saud Bin Abdulaziz Al Mualla, President of the Arab Chess Federation and Sharjah Cultural and Chess Club, Arkady Dvorkovich, President of International Chess Federation (FIDE) and Lewis Ncube, President of the African Chess Confederation.

Sheikh Saud thanked the efforts of the peoples involved in making the Arab-African Online Individual Open Chess Championships a success.

He also expressed delight over the large number of participation from players of Arab and African regions.

Praising the joint initiative of Arab Chess Federation and the Africa Chess Confederation, Sheikh Saud said: “Such event will help in promoting the game.”

The Arab Chess Federation and the Africa Chess Confederation collaborated to stage the historic event.

Sheikh Saud also thanked President of the African Chess Federation for his support. The Arab Chess Federation had issued an invitation to all the Arab and African bodies seeking their cooperation and participation in the tournament. They all agreed, which paved the way for hosting the championship.

The objective of the event was to raise the level of African players, continue to improve the game of chess, development of skills and improve communication between member players of the two regions.

UAE’s Faisal Mohammed Al Hammadi was the chief arbiter while Ncube served as observer of the championship.

Under the guidance of the club’s president Sheikh Saud, the Sharjah Cultural and Chess Club participates in a large number of chess and cultural activities in the country and worldwide.