Mousa's gold gives the UAE great eight

Cairo: The UAE has picked up yet another gold medal in chess thanks to the brain power of Dubai's Osman Mousa Abdullah.

His win brings the UAE's gold-medal tally to eight and as the competition was brought to a close late last night there were high hopes that more podium finishes would be forthcoming.

The top-seeded Mousa performed well with a 2 1/2-2 1/2 tally against tough opposition from Yemen, Syria and Egypt.

The emirates were ranked ninth in the chess competition yesterday evening with Syria, Egypt and Algeria topping the table.

Thirty-two-year-old Mousa, who is the elder brother of another UAE chess champion Taleb Mousa, first came to the fore when he secured the silver medal in the First Arab Zone Championship at Doha in 1997.

Mousa also won the His Highness the UAE President's Cup in 1994, 1997 and 1998.

He is one of the most experienced and highly-regarded chess players in the UAE.

Mousa is an active member of the Dubai Chess & Culture Club which was established in 1979, as a member of the UAE Chess Federation and was endorsed by the Higher Council for Sports & Youth.

Meanwhile, there was serious fighting talk coming from the UAE's karate camp yesterday as they confidently predicted a clutch of medals from the women's competition which continues in Cairo this morning.

Gunning for glory

Team captain, Shaikha Maitha Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE champion and Asian Games silver medallist, will be gunning for glory in the kumite.

Chief coach, Maina Gadid, insisted that her fighters were very confident of success and were hoping for two or three gold medals after months of intense training.

"They have the talent and we have focused on training them to win medals," Gadid announced.