Dubai defeated Ajman 7-0 while Sharjah beat Abu Dhabi 5.5-1.5 in the opening round of the Federation Cup Chess Championship.
Sale Srdjan of Dubai defeated Othman Rabeea of Ajman in 20 moves from a queen pawn opening, irregular variation. Sale's advanced doubled pawns in the centre gave him an overwhelming advantage. Sale gave up a knight for a pawn for a decisive advantage and won a major piece. The rest was routine technique.
The annual event is being held under a new format of preliminaries and finals in a knockout-stage matches. Each side has seven players and teams from Ajman, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai are competing for top honours. Each team can include one foreign player to provide experience to top-board UAE players.
Results of Round 1: Dubai bt Ajman 7- 0. Sale Srdjan bt Othman Rabeea. Saleh Nabeel bt Ahmad Yahya. Tayeb S. bt Omar Abdul Wahab. Saleh Nagueb bt Marwan Abdul Wahab. Yahya Mohd Saleh bt Abdulrahman. Al-Khaja Arif bt Khalifa Khamis. Saeed Ishaq bt Khalfan Khamis. Sharjah bt Abu Dhabi 5.5-1.5. Al Taher Fouad bt Ali Mahmoud. Hassan Abdul bt Talal Hilwani. Jasim A.R. Saleh bt Faisal Kashwani. Abdul Majid bt Ebrahim Esmail. Mohammad Hossain drew with Ebrahim Mohd Khouri. Mohd Al Taher lost to Mansour Abbas. Salem A.R. Saleh bt Ahmad Abbas Khouri.
