Just wanted to share with you the wonderful news.

The tournament will take place between October 3rd till October 10th.

It will have 7 rounds with a day break in between.

More details will come by the end of the weekend.

ALSO,

There is big money prizes and over 20 players will end up with ceremonial prizes and gifts!

And also, a new SURPRISE addition to the tournament is the Raffle-draw at the final day!

Stay tuned for more info (soon to come).

Cheers!!

I hope you have a pleasant month and wish you a pleasant Ramadan.

And of course: Mubarak Alaykum El Shaher!

Hello again dear chess fans! We had some great suggestions. But as you can all see, there isn’t much interest in having a tournament now. People are either traveling or are spending more time with family and friends.

However, one thing I realized is that if the prizes are not high enough, not many players participate. If there are prizes for the top ten 10 players and they are valued at over USD $3,000, then many would register.

As for the 19 eager players who want a tournament now, I regretfully don’t think we will have a tournament sooner then Ramadan. Hopefully soon enshAllah we’ll have more tournaments.

For now, keep practicing your chess!

A guest posted a comment the other day that was interesting.

What if we have a tournament in the Kuwait Chess Federation soon?

Would you join?

If we have at least 50 (paying) players, then I think , maybe yes.

If less then 50, then we have to wait till Ramadan.

Anyways, vote here and answer only once please…

Of course, for now, we only want to see if there is interest.

If you want a tournament, we will make the needed arrangements.

For now, its just a simple question wondering if you would like to play.

The answers are simple. I am still here but I have nothing to report on. Hopefully there will be a tournament soon. But I expect there won’t be one until Ramadan. There is a small chance we will have one soon though. So keep practicing your chess.

Anyways, I want to share with you a game I played the other day.

Apparently during the game, I made a really bad move.

I was white and the game went…

1. f4 e6 2. g4

My pet Lemur, whose name is Kaspy, saw this and was surprised!!

See his reaction in this short clip.

In this puzzel, should White simplify into an ending with a pawn advantage or does he have better?

The most prestigious chess event has started earlier today.

The world chess championship has the current world Champion, Vishy Anand, defending his crown against Vesselin Topalov, the Bulgarian Super GrandMaster.

And today, Topolov crushed Anand in a quick 30 move artistic game.

The report below was taken from here – http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6278 -

If you are interested in the event, chessbase.com usually post reports sooner then most sites.

You can also check out the official website at http://www.anand-topalov.com/

World Championship Sofia: Topalov draws first blood

No matter who you were rooting for, or expecting to win, no one could have foreseen the blitzkrieg that took place in the first game. Topalov had white, and the first major question was what the Anand team would have prepared as Black. The answer was a Grünfeld that many GMs, prior to the match, had thought was unlikely, owing to the risk of being run over if things go sour. The ill-fated choice led to one of the quickest and most decisive opening games in World Championship history, with Topalov rattling off his moves very quickly and comfortably.

The game followed playable moves in computer books until move eleven, where …cxd4 was preferred. Also 12…Bb7 would have been the first choice. 14.Bxg7 was seen in Topalov-Kamsky World Chess Challenge 2009. At move 16, Topalov deviated from the main lines with 16.Rc1, a move that had only been played once before, and most probably was overlooked by Anand’s team. As far as we can see 16…Qd6!? is a new move.

Topalov,V (2805) – Anand,V (2787) [D86]
WCh Sofia BUL (1), 24.04.2010
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Na5 11.Bd3 b6 12.Qd2 e5 13.Bh6 cxd4 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.cxd4 exd4 16.Rac1 Qd6 17.f4 f6 18.f5 Qe5 19.Nf4 g5 20.Nh5+ Kg8 21.h4 h6 22.hxg5 hxg5 23.Rf3. Everything was looking dangerous, but basically okay for Black. The only defence looked like 23…Bd7 followed by Rg3 and then maybe Kf7. However Anand blunders with 23…Kf7??

This loses immediately to 24.Nxf6! Now the game ends very quickly: 24…Kxf6 25.Rh3 Rg8 26.Rh6+ Kf7 27.Rh7+ Ke8 28.Rcc7 Kd8 29.Bb5 Qxe4 30.Rxc8+ 1-0. [Click to replay]

Topalov played his moves very quickly, and with great precision. It is not unlikely that the entire game was the product of home preparation. In any case it was a beautiful demonstration of the Bulgarian’s superb preparation, and an immediate crisis for Anand.

SOURCE: http://www.chessbase.com

And a big thank you goes to Ahmed Hosni and Reberto Carandang for taking beautiful pictures and giving them to me to post them on the site. In due time, many more pictures will be posted here.

Here is a few to begin with:

 

 

Anyways, here is what you’re after. The final standing from the National Open Chess Tournament.

1. Dennis Poliquit (7.5 PTS) WINNER
2. Bader Al Hajer
3. Hani Sameih (7.0 PTS)
4. Ahmed Jad Al Rab
5. Florentino Silao
6. Ferdinand Bugay (6.5 PTS)
7. Taher Al Khateeb
8. Khalid Khan Anwar (6.0 PTS)
9. Fayiq Kanan
10. Hamada Al Wakiel
11. Mohamad AbdulMohsin (5.5 PTS)
12. Ahmed Hosni
13. Eid Mohammed
14. Waleed Al Awadhi
15. Faizur Rahman
16. Asfand Yar Khan
17. Mohamed Jabr (5.0 PTS)
18. Imad Abul Latif
19. Al Sayed Anwar
20. Basir Cosain
21. Emmanuel Ygpuara
22. Dr. Ahmed Al Shikh
23. Hamdi Faraj
24. Samuel Santos
25. Kennith Tasadao
26. Bader Al Khaldi
27. Nasir Al Maqseed (4.5 PTS)
28. Oliver John
29. Nasir Bahamany
30. Basim Zaki
31. Edgar Benities (4.0 PTS)
32. Ferdinand Laming
33. Nizar Kanan
34. Ahmed Abdu
35. Abdulwahab Al Atiqi
36. Khaled Al Hashem
37. Omran Al Moussawi
38. Abdulrahman Al Ibrahim
39. Waheed Hilal (3.5 PTS)
40. Sajan Vargughese
41. Imad Fawzi (3.0 PTS)
42. Zaid Al Marafi
43. Labib Obaid
44. Amin Yamout
45. AbdulAziz Al Senafi (2.5 PTS)
46. Nanda Kumar (2.0 PTS)
47. Hashim Khan
48. Hashem Ali Hussain (1.5 PTS)
49. Abdulmohsin Al Meshari (1.0 PTS)
50. Mohamed Al Sayed
51. Faisial Al Hamlan (— PTS)
52. Greg Blanco
53. Rashid Al Alam
54. Nour Al Dein
55. Hani Sabri
56. Mohamed Qabazard
57. Ihab Hamza
58. Ali Hassan
59. Anoop Pious
60. Ali Al Sakkaf
61. Mohamed Mahmoud

A big big congratulations to Dennis Poliquit for winning this tournament with only a single loss. He even beat Bader Al Hajeri in an earlier round in a very tactical game.

Welcome back. This is the final report for the March Open Chess Tournament of 2010. We would like to thank all the players who played and participated in this lovely event. I would also like to Congratulate the winner, Mr. BADER AL HAJERI for winning the tournament.

He won in the last round quite easily as it seemed. Mr. Afifi sacrificed a whole piece in the opening and did not seem to have any real compensation. The game did not last too long.

The game that was most surprising was Nasser Al Maqseed versus Florentino Silao on board 2. Florentino tried to push really hard against Maqseed. But Maqseed defended quite solidly and managed to force a DRAW! Every one who was watching the game was stunned. Even Naser himself said the other day, “I’m going to lose against him.” Surprisingly, he played like a master and defended like one as well. This Left Florentino Silao with only 5.5 points. Whilst Bader won his loast round leaving him with a total of 6 points. Bare in mind that Bader only lost to Waleed Al Awadhi on round 2.

As for the top players, I would like to first congratulate Bader Al Hajeri for winning the tournament with a score of 6.0 / 7. Florentino Silao came in second place with a score of 5.5/7. Ibrahim Shehab, Faizur Rahman, and Zakariya Afifi came after them with each scoring 5.0 points out of 7.

The cash prizes are as follows: 1st – $200, 2nd – $150, 3rd – $100, 4th – $50, 5th – $5o.

Pictures will be made available when I receive them. Ahmad Hosni has taken a few pictures and will send them to me as soon as he can. I will post them on this article when they arrive.

Here is the FINAL STANDINGS:

1. BADER AL HAJERI 6.0 PTS  **CONGRATULATIONS!!!**
2. FLORENTINO SILAO 5.5 PTS
3. IBRAHIM SHEHAB 5.0 PTS
4. FAIZUR RAHMAN
5. ZAKARIYA AFIFI
6. Nasser Al Maqseed
7. Ahmed Hosni
8. Ala’a Abdul Latif
9. Waleed Al Awadhi 4.5 PTS
10. Basir Cosain
11. Fayiq Kanan 4.0 PTS
12. Khaled Al Hashem
13. Eid Mohamed
14. Dr. Al Shikh
15. Abdulwahab Al Atiqi
16. Sajan Vargughese
17. Taher Al Khateeb 3.0 PTS
18. Nizar Kanan
19. Reda Ahmad
20. Mohamed Qabazard
21. Nour Al Dien
22. Yousif Yousif 2.5 PTS
23. Magdi Tawfiq 2.0 PTS
24. Amer Al Amer
25. Mohamed Abdul Mohsin
26. Omran Al Moussawi
27. Ashraf Dawoud 1 PTS
28. Raed Ahmadiya
29. Khalid Al Jiwasri
30. Abdullah Salah
31. Dr. Asim
32. Khaled Al Harees — PTS
33. Ali Al Sakkaf
34. Ali AL Aldin
35. Nasir Bahamany

Here’s a quick round up of what happened. Bader Al Hajeri, unsurprisingly defeated Florentino Silao leaving both players with 5.0 points each. Now there are several players vowing for the top spots. If Silao wins tonight, then he will be crowned champion, even if Bader Al Hajeri wins as well. If on the other hand Bader wins and Silao draws, then Bader will win. So Basically, the games on the top three boards will be cut-throat.

We also have Nasser Al Maqseed and Waleed Al Awadhi playing on the top boards as well. In the end, the scores are so close that it’s anybody’s game.

Anyways, here is the final round pairing: And as you can see, there are only 11 boards left. It’s funny that in 7 rounds, we lost 30% of the players. We started with 32 players and now we are down to 22 players (I think less even).

Round 7 Pairings: (no scores available. Final standing will be made available soon.)

1. Bader Al Hajeri vs. Zakariya Afifi
2. Florentino Silao vs. Naser Al Maqsed
3. Ibrahim Shehab vs. Waleed Al Awadhi
4. Eid Mohamed vs. Ahmed Hosni
5. Fayiq Kanan vs. Faizur Rahman
6. Basir Cosain vs. Ala’a Abdul Latif
7. Khaled Al Hashem vs. Taher Al Khateeb
8. Nizar Kanan vs. Nour Al Dein
9. Dr. Al Shikh vs. Sajan Vargughese
10. Abdulwahab Al Atiqi vs. Maqdi Tawfiq
11. Amer Al Amer vs. Reda Ahmad

The tournament is almost over. With just two rounds left, we can easily see who might be the top 5 players.

Yesternight, after the games were finished, only 1 person remained with a perect score of 5.0 out of 5 rounds.

And a big round of applause and a heartly Congratulations to Florentino Silao for remaining the only undefeated player. On Saturday evening, Florentino will be playing white against the top seed of the tournament, Bader Al Hajeri.

And speaking of Bader Al Hajeri. He was supposed to play Faizur Rahman on the 5th round. Even though he did eventually play, the game didn’t last more then 10 minutes. The reason you ask? Simply put, apparently Faizur forgot about the game and he arrived at 8:03PM! He was late for more than an hour. He was lucky because he still had 3 minutes on his clock. Well, against Bader Al Hajeri, that’s already a lose. Though Faizur did put up a good fight. He lost on time and to be honest, on position as well.

Here is a quick update: One player has perfect 5.0/5. Four players have a score of 4.0/4. And two players have 3.5/4.

My guess is that those with a score of four and above might be on the champs. Anything less at this moment, might not get anybody anything. However, this is just a guess. A lot can happen in two rounds.

Anyways, here’s the pairing for the next round (Saturday).

1. Florentino Silao (5.0 PTS) vs. Bader Al Hajeri (4.0PTS)
2. Zakariya Afifi vs. Ibrahim Shehab
3. Waleed Al Awadhi (3.5 PTS) vs. Fayiq Kanan
4. Taher Al Khateeb (3.0 PTS) vs. Nasir Al Maqseed
5. Ahmed Hosni vs. Mohamed Qabazard
6. Faizur Rahman vs. Nizar Kanan
7. Nour Al Dien vs. Eid Mohammed
8. Ala’a Abdul Latif  vs. Khaled Al Hashem
9. Yousef Ahmed (2.5 PTS) vs. Mohamed Abdulmohsin
10. Reda Ahmad (2.0 PTS) vs. Basir Cosain
11. Sajan Vargughese vs. Magdi Tawfiq
12. Amer Al Amer vs. Abdulwahab Al Atiqi
13. Dr. Al Shikh 1:0 BYE

As you can see, only 13 boards from the original 19 remain. Remember, if you are absent twice, then you will be disqualified from the tournament. But one thing is for sure, now most of the players will be playing and no seat be truly be left open. This will make it a more exciting tournament for the rest of the players.