Welcome back folks.

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.