Dubai: Grandmaster (GM) Bassem Amin picked up another championship in Dubai after teaming up with compatriot GM Ahmed Adly to obliterate the competition in the Dubai Cup Team Chess Tournament 2017 at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
The Egyptian duo scored a rare sweep of all their matches to tally a perfect score of 18 points in the 36-team blitz team tournament.
Amin earlier won a second consecutive title in the annual Allegiance to Zayed Chess Tournament, which was also hosted by the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
Team System Down of GM Salem Saleh, the UAE number one player, and GM Bartosz Socko, the Polish coach of the UAE national team, gave chase all the way to the final round, but only managed the silver medal with 15 points. Four teams had 12 points each with team Uzbekistan of GM Sergey Kayumov and Ravshan Khamroev securing third place with the highest tiebreak score.
Cuba’s GM Walter Arencibia and Spain’s GM VIktor Moskalenko, playing under team Hispania, was fourth. Team Dubai, composed of UAE national players Fide Master (FM) Saeed Ishaq and FM Othman Moussa and Lebanon’s Somoff Abdo, placed fifth.
Team November Rain, which featured Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Andjelija Stojanovic and Woman International Master (WIM) Ljilja Drljevic of Serbia and WGM Adriana Nikolova of Bulgaria, also had 12 points to finish sixth.
The tournament, part of the series of events hosted by Dubai Chess Club to celebrate Ramadan, attracted nearly 100 players from 17 countries. Each team comprised of two regular players and a serve. Players were allotted three minutes plus a two-second increment per move to complete a game.
