I would like to welcome our new friends who joined us this past Saturday.

Abu Sami, Mr. Daniel and Mr. Nasser are the new members of this “club.” Thank you for joining Us! We truely enjoyed the games we had with you guys!!!

Mohamed Qabazard, Khalaf Al Azmi, Nasser Maqseed, Omran Moussawi, Hashem Ali and myself are old friends.

Here are a few more pictures from this Saturday

I HOPE YOU CAN ALL **JOIN US THIS SATURDAY** AS WELL!

NEW FRIENDS ARE ALWAYS WELCOMED!!!

The American University of Kuwait is holding a chess tournament to the students, staff and faculty who work and study in the University.

<<This tourney is only open to students and faculty of AUK.>>

These are the details:

1. It’s a double elimintaion Tournament open to males and females.
2. The Sign-Up deadline is on Thursday the 16th of April.
3. The Sign up sheet is located in the Student-Life Room A004 in the Arts and Sciences Building.
4. The Room is open from 8:00 A.M. till 11:00 P.M.
5. The tourney starts on the 19th of April.
6. And the final day is on the 27th of April.
7. The GRAND PRIZE goes to the victor. And that prize is a new Ipod nano.

More Coverage of the tournament soon to come…

I am sure most people are upset about the postponement of the Sharg tournament.

However just because there is no tournament does not  mean you cant play and make new friends in the game of chess.

The members of the Kuwait Chess Federation meet in Caribou Cafe every Saturday at 7:00 P.M.

This week alone, we had around 10 members enjoy themselves in dozens of blitz games in the coffee shop.

Mohamed Qabazard, Nasser Maqseed, Amer Al Amer, Khalaf Al Azmi, Ibrahim Shehab, Raed Al Ahmadeih, Omran Al Moussawi, Hashem Ali, and myself were all present from around 7Pm till around 10 PM.

Other people who usually join the fun are: Kuwait Champion Bader Al Hajeri, Taher Al Khateeb, Waleed Al Awadhi, Abdulsalam Al Dakheel, Abdullah Maqseed, Ali Moussawi, and a handful of others.

So come join us this week for a couple of games and feel the joy of playing with real pieces instead of just playing online.

Just to make it clear, this is NOT a tournament… Just a couple of friends playing chess

(couple of chess fans)

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??!!

COME ON AND JOIN US FOR A COUPLE OF  FRIENDLY GAMES!

THIS AND EVERY SATURDAY AT THE CARIBOU CAFE IN THE AVENUES MALL AT 7 P.M.

And as a side note, I still don’t have word on the Sharg tournament. Once I recieve an anwer, I will update this site as soon as possible.

Until than, be well chess-fans of Kuwait :)

It’s a brand new year in chess! A new beginning for all chess fans in Kuwait and all countries abroad. We saw Kramnik being crushed by Anand, Carlsen making it to the top, and of course, this site was made only 5 months ago

Something that would bring all the chess-fans of kuwait together was my inspiration to create this website. And as time goes by, I hope to give you more of what you wanted and in return give what this sport needs, time and patience. Be optimistic for the future of this sport.  Keep studying your openings and understanding the strategies, because in only 2 months, the Sharg Mall Tournament will be around.

Of course, Encourage others to play chess. If they do not know how, than teach them. If they are to afraid, than let them beat you in a couple of games. If they are not in the mood, find a way to make them excited for chess.

In the end, chess is all about bringing people together. So let’s make the year of 2009 a year for the FAMILY OF CHESS! I wish you all great happiness and prosperity. May Allah guide you all to your goals. Thank you all for being a part of the Kuwait-chess community. I hope to see you all soon. Thank you for your time and May Allah bless you all.

Sincerly,

khaled alhashem

Playchess is a great place to see some of the strongest players in the world play a couple rounds. Some GrandMasters and International Masters just join to watch the tournaments online. Mr King is one such player.

Today, I was lucky enough to see Grandmaster Daniel King online. He was Kibitzing a round between Ni Hau (ELO 2710) versus Sargissian Gariel (ELO 2642). This game ended in a draw. I learned from Daniel King that he has planned to make 12 PowerPlay DVDs. Here is the full conversation I had with him: (I am Q8kadsawy)

Q8kadsawy: Hello Mr. King! It’s nice to meet you. I just wanted to say your powerplay DVDs are amazing! The best training videos available

Daniel King: Thank you… by the way, could you tell me your (approximate) rating? I am never sure who watches the DVDs and the level they are best suited for …

Q9kadsawy: Your most welcome! In slow, tournament games, I’m around 1900. Your DVD about the f-pawn and h-pawn push was the most helpful to me. Your 1st DVD about tactics were the most fun

Daniel King: Thanks… that’s helpful. I’m afraid they can’t always be fun but I hope they are at least instructive…

Q8kadsawy: Please don’t misunderstand… They were all fun. The 1st DVD was funny as well. That’s all I meant.

Daniel King: Understood… but i still want them to be serious and fun!

Q8kadsawy: They are! I learned alot from watching your dvds more than trying to understand from a book.

Daniel King: Thanks. Good Luck.

Q8kadsawy: When can we expect another DVD? Just wondering

Daniel King: They are in production thw whole time… I have recorded 9 so far…

Q8kadsawy: Cool! I only know of the 1st 7 DVDs.

Daniel King: … but it takes time for them to be produced.

Q8kadsawy: When will they be released to the general public?

Daniel King: That I don’t know. It is in the hands of ChessBase. I will be recording more in the new year, and there will be 12 in total.

Q8kadsawy: I think your DVDs are the best intructive chess videos that chessbase has.

Daniel King: Thanks.

Q8kadsawy: Andrew Martin is 2nd best It’s nice to finally talk to my “teacher.”

Daniel King: Where are you from?

Q8kadsawy: Kuwait.

Daniel King: A long way!

Q8kadsawy: LOOL! If you come to kuwait, it’ll seem closer

Daniel King: Got to go now. Thanks and goodbye.

Q8kadsawy: Thank you bye.

OverView:

A few weeks ago on the beginning of October, The GCC countries had a team chess tournament. Each team would have 4 players playing while one or two players were kept in reserve. Out of the six possible countries that could participate, only four countries had representatives. Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, and Qatar were the only countries that participated. Oman and Saudia Arabia did not show up. The Tournament took place in Dubai, UAE in the year of 2008 on October 8th – October 15th. Next year, the team Tournament will be held in Kuwait.

Participants:

A total of 19 players played at different times in this tournament. There was 1 GM, 4 IM’s, 5 FM’s, 1 CM, and 8 untitled players.

Representation and the Make-up of Teams:

Kuwait’s representatives; Waleed AlAwadhi (table 1), Mohamed Qabazard (table 2), Faisal AlHamlan (table 3), Bader AlHajeri (table 4), and Abdulsalam AlDakheel being the back-up.

Bahrain’s Representatives; Ali AlSulaity (table 1), “FM” Abdulgalil Ayyad (table 2), “FM” Maher Ayyad (table 3), Khalaf Bukhalaf (table 4), and “CM” Ali AlGhasra as the back-up.

United Arab Emirites’ representatives; “IM” Saleh Salem (table 1), “FM” Ishaq Saeed (table 2), “IM” Abdullah Hassan (table 3), ”FM” Jasem Alhuwar (table 4), and “FM” Yahya Saleh as the back-up.

Qatar’s Representatives; “GM” Hamad AlModaihki (table 1), “IM” Mohamed AlSayed (table 2), “IM” AbdulAziz Husein (table 3), and Hamad AlTamimi (table 4). They had no back-up player.

Placement:

• 1st Place: Qatar         [6+ , 0= , 0-]
• 2nd Place: UAE          [4+ , 0=, 2-]
• 3rd Place: Bahrain     [2+ , 0= , 4-]
• 4th Place: Kuwait      [0+ , 0= , 6-]

Qatar’s Achievement:

The only team to not have lost a single game in any of the boards was The Qatari Team. Not only that, Hamad AlModiahki was the only player to have 6 wins from 6 games total! Congratulations to Hamad a Modiahki and the Qatari Team!

Points Per Team:

There was a total of 24 games played in the tournament and Qatar ended up with 22 points, drawing only 4 games. The UAE ended with 15 points total. The Bahraini Team had 9.5 points, whilst Kuwait ended up with 1.5 points.

Dissappointment:

The only team to show up without a trainer or coach was the Kuwaiti Team. Mohamed Qabazard said, “It was dissappointing to see the other players go to thier rooms at night to practice while we were the only team to be in the lobby with empty hands.” Qabazard also said, “If we don’t get proper trainers, I won’t participate in the tournament next year. We had a very bad result because of our bad preparation.”

Interviews:

Mohamed Qabazard: “Overall, it was a great experience. However it was a bit short. I only played three rounds out of the six total. There was a lack of preparation from our side when compared to the other nations. I won’t play again next year if there is no change in Kuwait’s situation with Chess sponsorship. Kuwait has no FIDE accreditation, no coach, and bad adminstration. In fact, we don’t have an administration, hehehe.” However, it was a nice change from routine. We also went to malls and enjoyed this vacation.”

Waleed Al Awadhi: “We need to start taking things seriously. We need preparation for these kinds of tournaments. We also had same-day preparation problems. We prepared our openings on the same day we were to play against our opponents.  A Kuwaiti team needs to have a coach to depend on. Chess books don’t ‘talk’ to you! A Coach can see your weaknesses and tell you how to improve on them! Grand Master Victor Bologan, the Qatari Coach, told me I played a good French Defence against GM Hamad AlModaihki. And against Ali Salaity, I almost beat him. I blundered a rook but I still had an initiative. Also Faisal AlHamlan did really well againt a couple of players. In fact, in one game, he had a won position.”

Bader AlHajeri: I play really well but my weakness is my opening preparation. I could have won against another opponent but my opening prepartion was bad.

Abdulsalam AlDakheel: I had two bad losses. In only one game i actually sat down and concentrated.  When I arrived in Dubai, it turned out I didn’t have a room to sleep in. I slept on the floor on the first night. The officials than compensated me by giving me a suite. Also when i first arrived, i was surprised to hear that I was going to play on that day. I was tired and couldn’t concentrate. It was a good experience overall.

Games Played:

If you would like to see the complete compilation of the games played in the tournament, please leave your email in the comments and I will send it to you as soon as possible. Thank you.

Pictures: By Abdulsalam AlDakheel

Their Prize fund is around 60 THOUSAND US DOLLARS!!!

The Prize fund for the Kuwaiti Ramadan tournament is around 200 U.S Dollars, if your lucky. (LOOOL)

Do you see the difference: $200 vs. $60,000 … The have 300x more prizes than us! That is just sad

Go to thier site to find out more.

click here ==> http://www.abudhabichess.com/ <== click here