Top players arrive for Arab Elite Chess event

UAE’s Asian champion Salem Abdul Rahman Saleh to face tough contest as championship takes off

May 27, 2015

Dubai: Top Arab chess players have arrived in Dubai to take part in the Arab Elite Chess Championship, which will begin on Wednesday evening at the Shaikh Saeed Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Hall of the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.

The UAE’s number one-ranked player and Asian Champion Grandmaster (GM) Salem Abdul Rahman Saleh (Fide rating 2614) is the tournament’s second seed.

He will face stiff competition from Egyptian top seed GM Bassem Amin (2633), GM Mohammad Al Sayed (2501) from Qatar, GM Mohammad Haddouche (2492) from Algeria, International Master (IM) Basheer Al Qudaimi (2405) from Yemen and IM Sami Khader (2376) from Jordan.

The host club’s FM Saeed Ishaq has also been invited to the tournament, where he will be looking to secure a GM norm.

Speaking after a players’ meeting presided over by Mohammad Al Husseini, Executive Director of the Dubai Chess and Culture Club, the tournament director, Ibrahim Al Bannai, who is also President of the Arab Chess Federation, said: “This year’s edition of the Arab Elite Championship features a very competitive field with four of the region’s top grandmasters vying for the prestigious title.

“The UAE’s GM Salem Abdul Rahman Saleh will have strong local support, but GM Bassem Amin, GM Mohammad Al Sayed and GM Mohamed Haddouche are all very dangerous opponents in a top-level event such as this one,”

Al Bannai lauded the decision to allow Ishaq to compete in the event. “As host of the event, Dubai Chess and Culture Club is very pleased to see their player being given an opportunity to shine in such a prestigious tournament. This will surely help draw greater interest from our students and the entire chess community in Dubai.”

The third edition of the Arab Elite Chess Championship is being contested for the Kirsan Ilyumzhinov Cup, with 16 players from 15 Arab countries vying for the most prestigious individual chess title in the region.

All games will be broadcast live on the Dubai Chess and Culture Club website (www.dubaichess.ae) and other popular chess sites such as chess24.com.

The tournament, supported by Fide President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, offers a total cash purse of $20,000 for the winners, with $8,000 and the cup going to the champion. The rest of the top six players will also receive cash prizes.