Sport | Other Sports
UAE hosting a tournament for players from across the Arab world
Preparations for the Manazel Arab Chess Festival have been completed.
- By Yasir Abbasher, Senior Reporter
- Published: 23:35 August 3, 2008
Abu Dhabi: Preparations for the Manazel Arab Chess Festival have been completed.
The tournament runs from August 11 to 19 in Abu Dhabi and the organisers say they are are happy with the arrangements and optimistic that the event will be a success.
The festival is being held under the patronage of Shaikh Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council.
The chess festival will feature 200 players from 14 Arab countries with both men and women competing in different age categories.
The countries represented will be UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Tunis, Algeria, Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco and Yemen.
Each country taking part in the chess competition can have a single player in the men's competition but they are allowed two players in the ladies.
However, the hosts are allowed to have two players in the men's competition and three players in the ladies.
Age groups
The festival includes competitions for juniors with age categories of under 20, 18, 16, 14, 12 and 10 years for both boys and girls.
"It will be a good event for the local players to gain experience and compete with their peers from the Arab countries," Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim, the Chairman of the UAE Chess Federation, told Gulf News.
Al Fahim, who is also the Vice Chairman of the event organisers the Abu Dhabi Chess and Culture Club, expressed the club's gratitude and appreciation for the support of Shaikh Hazza.
He added: "The UAE team in the festival will consist of about 50 players and we are keen not only to compete in all age groups but also to achieve good results."
Aref Esmail Khory, from the festival sponsor Manazel Properties Company, said "We are happy to be partners in such a big sporting event.
"It was not our first sponsorship deal to support sports in general and chess in particular and we are determined to support the sector of youth and sports in the UAE."
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