Doha: Grand Master Salem Abdul Rahman won the fourth bronze for the UAE in the 12th Arab Games in the Dynamic Chess competition which ended late on Monday night.
Abdul Rahman was unlucky to have ended his last match in the competition against Al Ka'abi, from Tunisia, in a draw to lose the gold medal and settle for the bronze after beating Mohammad Al Haddouchi, from Algeria, who eventually won the gold.
Abdul Rahman achieved the result, having started his match by forcing Qatari GM Mohammad Al Modiahki to settle for a draw and then going on to defeat GM Ahmad Adly of Egypt. As against an expected all out push for the gold, he surprisingly settled for a draw in his last match.
Abdul Rahman finished his matches with 6.5 points, while Al Haddouchi collected seven points to win the gold, Egyptian Basim Ameen won silver with same points on tie-breaker.
"We expected to win a medal in the Dynamic Chess by Salem (Abdul Rahman)," Esmail Khoury, the team's manager, told Gulf News yesterday.
Bad luck
"We thought it would be a gold medal just one match before the end of the competition, but Salem had to settle for a draw and these things happen in this sport, especially when total concentration is needed.
"And I think Salem may have remembered his bad luck of the first competition where he also ended his last match in a tie and lost an otherwise easy medal.
"We are still in the thick of action and we are hoping to win more medals and I believe our players are capable of winning more than what they have won," Khoury added.
Omar Noaman, the other UAE player, finished 29th with 3 points.
