Dear chess fans,

Welcome to the site once more and thanks for continually visiting to see if there are any updates. I thought I needed to do this because I don’t like being kept in the dark either.

Well, as for tournaments, there might not be one for quite a while (sorry). Not until the issues are finalized between the Kuwait Chess Federation and The Public Authority For Youths and Sports. The process is slow, but things are moving along and we will soon have a budget for a few tournaments a year. Which is great!

And it’s true, the Kuwait Chess Federation did not have really strong support for the past 10 years, but we’re still here and we’re still getting better everyday.

Try not to feel down that there are no confirmed tournaments for the next couple of weeks and enjoy the fact that people, chess fans like you, are never going to give up on chess. And they are going to fight and give all of what they have so they and their chess friends can have a place to call, a chess club. So do your part and fight along side them by not giving up hope and remain cheerful that you will get to play in many many many many many many GREAT & AMAZING tournaments with great prizes one day. And that day is getting closer and closer. Keep yourself ready my friends.

And remember that One day a chess program will beat a chess champion. Oh wait, that already happened years ago.

Luckily they haven’t beaten us in real life.

Oh no, you have got to be kidding me! What, a chess program used a robotic arm to crush Vladimir Kramnik in front of dozens of reporters and even Magnus Carlsen?! And it pressed the clock itself without assistance?? Impossible you might say. In chess, nothing is impossible. Like Kuwait having a great chess club hehehehe Watch this video and enjoy a laugh too.

There have been unconfirmed “rumor” reports that the Kuwait Chess Federation will host the National Kuwait Chess Tournament to finally have an OFFICIAL top players list sometime by the end of this year.

All details are unclear. But what is clear is that the idea will move forward sometime within the next few months. And with the tournament, we will actually have the Official Kuwaiti Chess Champion(s). 

We didn’t have a tournament like this for approximately 10 years. The last one was won by the current Champion, Bader Al Hajeri, in the year 2003. And in 2002, Taher Al Khateeb won.

So the real question is, will Bader win again, or will Taher retake the title, or even more surprising, will there be a new champion?

Only time will tell.

This tournament will be open to Kuwaitis and to players of all ages and to women as well. We need an Official Woman’s Chess Champion too !

Stay tuned for more updates on this crucial tournament.

Currently held in the UAE, the Arab Elite Championship is hosted by the Dubai Chess Club and has 17 of the top players from 17 different Arab countries.

Starting rank list

For one of the first times in many many years, Kuwait finally has a representative to play for our team. Of course, that person in none other than Bader Al Hajeri. His current FIDE ELO is 2130. Even though he is not performing at his usual level, he’s playing some great chess with great chances for both, even till the endgame. If your interested in watching his games, you can visit the site that will be provided below.

http://dubaichess.ae/default.aspx?lang=en

In one of his games against Sabar Daouda from Maurtania, FIDE ELO 2097, Bader (white) missed an amazing tactic that would have won him the game easily. However, he played a good move either way and won it about 20 moves later. Now this is a puzzle for everyone. Can you find the move that Bader missed?

White to move and win.

A man is inside a prison cell with no doors and no windows.

All he has is a mirror and a table.

How does he get out?

Assume the prison was built around him**

P.S. This is a very difficult question. Don’t feel too hard on yourself for not getting it.

ANSWER:

Look in the mirror and see what you saw.

Take the saw and cut the table in half.

Put the two halves of the tables together to make a whole.

Get out through that hole.

A big congratulations to the victors of the tournament. And a big applause to Taher Al Khateeb for not only getting 5th place, but for also organizing an amazing well-needed chess tournament.

3rd FISCHER OPEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP (Aug. 2011) – Final Standings

Place – Name – Federation – Rating – Score – Progr. – Buch. – M-Buch.

1 Ahmad Emad Taha, JOR 1677 7 28.0 31.0 22.5
2 Bader Alhajri, KUW 1804 6 24.0 28.0 21.0
3 Florinteno Silao, PHI 1598 5 23.0 33.0 23.0
4 Fredinand Laming, PHI 1554 5 21.5 29.5 20.5
5 Taher Alkhateeb, KUW 1538 5 20.0 28.0 19.5
6 Hamada A. E. Elwakeel, EGY 1529 5 20.0 28.0 19.0
7 Fredinand Bugay, PHI 1649 5 19.0 28.5 19.5
8 Chante Ceasar, RSA 1400 5 17.0 21.0 16.0
9 Ahmad Mohd Hosni, EGY 1610 4.5 20.0 29.0 20.0
10 Mohammed Jabr, EGY 1641 4.5 18.5 26.5 18.5
11-13 Waleed Alawadhi, KUW 1483 4.5 17.0 25.0 18.0
Ebrahim Shehab A., KUW 1476 4.5 17.0 24.0 16.0
Khaled A. Hashem, KUW 1406 4.5 16.5 26.5 19.0
14-24 Basir Cosain, PHI 1454 4 20.0 34.0 23.0
Ahmad Abdu Mohd Abdu, EGY 1366 4 20.0 29.0 21.0
Wael Mohd Jehad, SYR 1361 4 18.0 24.0 18.0
Vishwanath Jeyraman, IND 1318 4 17.5 26.5 19.0
Asfand Yar Khan, PAK 1375 4 17.0 29.5 21.5
Valibor Djukic, SRB 1430 4 17.0 27.5 19.5
Alaa M Abdul-Lateef, EGY 1412 4 17.0 27.0 19.5
Vicente Acedillo, PHI 1300 4 17.0 21.0 15.5
Leon Ceasar, RSA 1498 4 16.5 29.0 20.0
Naser A. Maqseed, KUW 1370 4 15.5 27.0 19.0
Hamad Almutawa, KUW 1176 4 13.0 21.0 15.0
25-30 Haza Alshorafa, KUW 1398 3.5 16.5 26.5 17.0
Bader N. Alkhaldi, KUW 1470 3.5 15.0 27.5 20.0
Talal A. Alruwaieh, KUW 1250 3.5 14.5 25.0 18.5
Khaled Khan Anwar, PAK 1478 3.5 14.5 25.0 17.0
Amer Alamer, KUW 1228 3.5 13.5 22.5 16.0
Naser Ali Alsubaie, KUW 1176 3.5 12.5 21.0 15.5
31-39 Abdullah Hmoud Almutairi, KUW 1241 3 16.0 23.5 17.0
Vivekanand Prakash Kondpa, IND 1250 3 14.0 22.0 15.5
Omran H. Almousawy, KUW 1187 3 13.0 25.0 18.0
Mohd Sharhan Alshemmari, KUW 1200 3 12.0 24.5 18.0
Bhanu Prakash, IND 1250 3 11.0 20.5 15.5
Mahmoud A Mohd Hussan, EGY 1200 3 10.5 20.0 14.0
Agha Alla Hverdiyev, AZR 1397 3 10.0 24.5 17.5
Selvan Someishwar, IND 1200 3 10.0 21.0 15.0
Abdulwahab Alatiqi, KUW 1173 3 9.0 18.5 13.0
40-42 Vinson Vaz, IND 1200 2.5 11.5 22.0 15.5
Nami Fahad Alnami, KUW 1200 2.5 9.5 21.5 15.0
Mohd. Mutaz Altinawi, SYR 1164 2.5 8.0 17.5 13.0
43-46 Ahmad Alsubaie, KUW 1239 2 11.0 22.0 15.0
Zeyad S. Aladbely, KUW 1236 2 10.0 21.5 14.5
Hashel Alhuwaishel, KUW 1200 2 5.0 18.0 13.0
Sami Behbehani, KUW 1214 2 5.0 17.0 12.0
47-48 Bassam Aldohan, KSA 1200 1 7.0 22.0 15.5
Mustafa Khan, PAK 1122 1 5.0 13.0 7.5
49 D.r.pratyusha, IND 1200 0 0.0 20.5 14.0

*Please Note that some players signed up for the tournament but could not participate for their own reasons. The 3rd Annual Fischer Tournament was supposed to have about 80 players. But only around 60 made it and participated in the tournament. The full roster of contestants can be found in the link below.

**This list only shows players who have played in the tournament for more the 1 round.

***For full roster click this link:http://www.twitlonger.com/show/ci4mi4

In the interest of supporting mind sports activities in the State of Kuwait
 Kuwait Mind Sports Association
 Jointly with the cooperation of
 
Taher Group Law Firm & Kuwait Society of Engineers
 
Proudly presents
 
Fischer 3rd Open Chess Tournament
 
During the period from 14/8/2011 – 21/8/2011
From 08:30 P.M till 11:00 P.M
Venue: The Kuwaiti Society of Engineers
The prizes allocated are as follows:-
       

 1St player: 1000$ 2Nd player: 500$ 3Rd player: 250$

Valuable prizes in kind for the first 10 competitors
Last date for registration and payment of fees is 13/8/2011
 
For Inquiries: 65978686 – 66661949 
 
Daily pairing on Twitter: @TAGKUW

GREETINGS KUWAIT CHESS FANS!

Been a really long time since I last made any posts. But I hope you will like this new information.

I just found out about this yesterday, when I spoke To Manuel Cornelio, the FCAK president.

Apparently, they currently have a Blitz 15 minute Chess Tournament.

Registration is 2 KD and a round is played once every Friday. It has a total of 9 rounds. (Tournament will last 2 months.)

They just started playing this past Friday. If you would like, you can still register.

Call Oliver John @ 66906419 or Manuel Cornelio @ 66737298 for more information and registration.

UPDATE: Apparently the numbers of Manuel and Oliver I posted are not in service. Once I find out thier contact info, I’ll post it as soon as I can. Sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE 2: The new number of Oliver John has been placed by him a few days ago and I got the confirmation last night. Oliver John’s mobile number = 66371044

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 28,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 27 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 158 posts. There were 123 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 11mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was February 8th with 503 views. The most popular post that day was National Tournament Round 2 Pairings.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, search.conduit.com, google.com.kw, 248am.com, and youtube.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for chess in kuwait, kuwait chess, kuwaitchess.net, kuwait chess club, and chess kuwait.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

National Tournament Round 2 Pairings February 2010
5 comments

Player Profiles September 2008
34 comments

Latest Player Ratings August 2009
8 comments

National Open Tournament: Round 3 Pairing February 2010
1 comment

Round 5, 6 & the FINAL ROUND Pairings: 2nd Annual Fischer Tournament October 2010
26 comments

Hello and welcome to the Kuwait Chess Website. I hope you will find some great information in regards to your chess needs and hopefully be interested to play chess with us in the near future.

My name is Khaled Hashem and I am the website creator/administrator. I created this site over 2 years ago to bring (chess-fans) people together in the virtual world and hopefully be able to organize tournaments and gatherings better and more efficiently.

And so far, the idea succeeded. We have had over 44 Thousand visits to the site and still increasing daily. Our Facebook fanpage started out with less then 20 members about a year ago, and now we have 150 members from across the world.

It’s great to see such success when it comes to chess. Most people just believe that chess is a hobby rather then a sport and that is why it doesn’t receive as much coverage. But as time and experience has taught us, this old belief is ancient. People love chess and it certainly brings people together, making relationships stronger. Of course you have your occasional disappointments, but hey, what sport doesn’t.

I want to wish everyone a great year and hope that 2011 will be a better year for the sport of chess. I’m a strong believer in a better future and hope that you are too.

If you are new to chess in Kuwait, I want to welcome you with open arms to this beautiful sport. You will meet and make great and intelligent friends and hopefully become a stronger player yourself.

As for tournaments, we might have one soon but I’m not sure exactly of the timing. I heard rumors that there might be one at the end of February. But don’t hold my word for it.

If you are interested in playing against someone, there is a active chess club in Kuwait. The Filipino Chess Association of Kuwait (FCA-K) currently operate a club in Kuwait city, next to Sheraton Hotel. They are located in the basement of Salhiya Tower, opposite to KFC. For more information about the FCA-K, you can contact the President of the club, Mr. Manny Cornelio. His number is 66737298. He is a great and friendly gentlemen. I know him personally and he is a good friend of mine. He will help in any way he could. Give him a call.If Manny is unavailable, you can call Oliver John, a member of the club for assistance. His number is 66906419. He too is a good friend of mine and is just as friendly. All the fellows at the FCA-K are great and would strongly recommend you to join their group.

As for the official Kuwait Chess Club, it currently is frozen due to unavailability of funding. There has been a dark cloud on the Kuwait Chess Federation that lasted for almost a decade. But after almost 10 years, Kuwait Chess has been recognized as an official sport. Government funding is expected to start on the second quarter of this year. We’re expecting great things to come from this. So fingers crossed.

If you want to play someone online, I would recommend chesscube.com for its ease of use and no start-up fees. Add me as a friend, my nickname is kuwaitchess.

If you have any questions, you can leave a message here, or join our facebook Fanpage to get to know a few other players (Type the following in the search engine of Facebook- “Kuwait Chess Club KCC”), or you can even send me an email to kuwaitchess@gmail.com

Here is a set of pictures from tournaments, gatherings, and other events. Hope you’ll enjoy. Cheers mi amigos!