Mixed fortunes for Moussa in initial rounds

Doha: Points mean prizes in the Asian Games chess competition and the UAE's Taleb Moussa needs more of them.

Moussa, a Grandmaster and the UAE's best player had a tough first-round draw against 2004 world champion and number 36 in the world, Kasimdzhanov Rustam, from Uzbekistan.

His second-round opponent, the untitled Nepalese Shrestha Bilam Lal, ranked 26,218 in the world, should have been easy picking, but perhaps suffering from a loss of confidence, Moussa could not beat him.

The last round of the day bought more luck for Moussa. Finding his form back, he won over Bayarsaikhan Gundavaa from Mongolia.

Moussa finished yesterday ranked in 27th position, but can take confidence from his final win going into today's rounds.

The UAE's other competitor, Abdulla Hasan Al Hammadi, also had mixed fortunes on the first day of chess competition. Draws in the first two rounds and a loss in the third saw him languishing overnight in 30th position.

Ranked at the top of the table was Moussa's first-round opponent Rustam. Rustam has been tipped for gold in this competition. His fellow countryman, Alekxei Basrov, said: "He is definitely a favourite and it will not surprise me if he wins the tournament."

Rapid Swiss is a fast form of chess that sees every player with a limited amount of time within which they must make all their moves.