Six Sharjah players in world championships

Sharjah: Six players from the Sharjah Chess and Culture Girls’ Club are taking part in the World School Individual Chess Championship in Pattaya, Thailand.

The UAE students are competing alongside hundreds of professional players representing a large number of schools from around the world.

The club is being represented by Emirati students Abrar Al Mazimi, Mariam Mohammad, Aisha Mohammad, Fatima Saif, Hanan Khalif and Aysha Sarhan, accompanied by coach Saeed Attya and official Dr Manal Saleh.

In round six of the age 13 category of the tournament, Aysha Sarhan tied, bringing her points to three.

In the age 11 category, Aysha Sarhan won (2.5 points) and Khalif lost (1.5 points), while in the aged nine category, Saif lost (3 points) and Aisha won (2 points). In the aged seven category, Abrar Mohammad won (2 points) and Mariam Mohammad lost in the sixth round (3 points).

Karima Hassan Al Maeni, Chairperson of the Sharjah Chess and Culture Girls’ Club, extended heartfelt thanks and appreciation to His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, and his wife Shaikha Jawaher Bint Mohammad Al Qasimi for their generous patronage of the club’s players, enabling them to achieve excellent results in local, regional and international competitions.

Khowla Al Sarkal, Deputy Chairperson of Sharjah Chess and Culture Girls’ Club, commended the support of Sharjah Sports Council to the club’s activities, facilitating the travel of players to participate in the Championship.

She said the youngster’s participation is helping them to gain more experience, improve their performance and raise the UAE flag high in international sport events, which will contribute to increasing the popularity of this mental sport in the UAE.

Hiba Ali Abdul Karim, Head of the Technical Committee at the Sharjah Chess and Culture Girls’ Club, said: “A group of the club’s talented young players are participating in this international tournament to hone their talents and improve their technical level in order to achieve best results in the UAE Individual Championships, which will be held by the end of July 2015. We wish our players the best of luck in the ninth and final round of the World Championships on Friday.”