Al Ain: UAE youngster Ahlam Rashid posted the first victory for the hosts at the 13th World Youth Chess Championships when she beat Yuliana Mustafina of Russia in her opening under-8s match on Wednesday night at the Crescent Hall of the UAE University here.
Ahlam will face Jia Ru-sim from Malaysia in the second round.
The other nine UAE under-8s girls all lost their matches. Shamsa Al Talea was beaten by Sofia Bellahcene from France, Shoog Ahmad Al Wahedi fell to Mayssa Bin Fredj from Tunisia, Mariam Faraj went down to Eva Stepanyan from Russia, Fatima Saif to Keertana Subramanyan from USA, Fatima Badr to Alisa Surovtseva from Russia, Alia Sarhan to Ngan Ha-neguyen from Vietnam, Zainab Darwish to Jihyan Ho from South Korea and Hanan Khalid to Ni Maggie from the USA.
In the same age category for boys, Salem Fadhil Al Shamsi scored the hosts’ best result when he pocketed half a point after forcing his opponent, Raats Joppe from Belgium, to settle for a draw. Al Shamsi will face Kiril Rygalov from Russia in the second round.
Six other local boys lost their opening matches — Hamed Al Marzoogi to Isik Can from Turkey, Amer Khalifa to Syed Kian from Iran, Khalid Khalifa to Andrei Bulgariu from Romania, Abdullah Al Housani to Momchil Petkov from Bulgaria, Zayed Al Housani to Pola Azad Saber from Iraq and Ali Al Ali to Polavaram Rithik from USA.
UAE registered their best results in the girls’ under-10s category as Wafia Darwish beat Nicole Shu-Yu from Belarus and Amal Fadhil Al Shamsi beat Samia Zannat from Italy, while Hind Faraj drew with Aksiniia Vaskovets from Ukraine.
Wafia will face Elizaveta Solozhenkina from Russia, Amal will play against Yulia Vinokur from Russia and Hind will face Sadagat Abbasova from Azerbajan in the second round.
In other matches, Aisha Nasir lost to Vinokur, Fatima Al Menhali went down to Tamar Esadze of Georgia and Rayan Mohammad to Kristyna Markova from the Czech Republic.
The UAE’s Ebrahim Sultan opened his campaign in the Under-16s Open in style by beating Brazilian Vitor Roberto Castro to set up a meeting with Rishi Sardana from Australia in the second round. In the same category, Hamdan Marshool lost to Lukasz Jarmula from Poland, Fahad Al Zarouni to Martin Percvaldi from Denmark and Farid Ahmad to William Foo from England.
In the Under-10s Open category for boys, all nine UAE players lost their matches. Sultan Al Darmaki conceded his match to Alex Krsyulovic from Hungary, Abdul Aziz Al Mualla to Mamikon Garibyan from Armenia, Saeed Al Housani to Samia Sanidi from Slovakia, Ammar Sedrani to Ruslan Kavyev from Russia, Hamed Essam to Lance Henderson de la Fuente from Spain, Mohammad Mosallam to Paul Justin from USA, Abdullah Al Niyadi to Daniel Sheliya from Russia, Harib Al Shamsi to Zideng Wang from China and Rashid Shaeri to Zhuoran Zheng from China.
In the girls’ under-12s, the four UAE competitors, Aisha Sarhan, Mariam Eisa, Hamda Sarhan and Yasmin Ali, were beaten by Sofiya Krasnokutskaya from Ukraine, Khanim Balajayeva from Azerbaijan, Yunshan Li from China and Anthi Maria Vozinaki from Greece respectively.
Last year’s champion, Vaishali Ramesh Babu from India, won her opening match against South Korean Cho Yeon-hee and will next face Elena Kostava from Georgia.
In the Under-12s Open, luck ran out for the UAE boys. Omar Al Housani lost to Valentin Buckels form Germany, Sultan Al Za’abi to Shant Sargsyan from Armenia, Saif Al Amoudi to Edoardo Di Benedetto from Italy, Salem Abdul Rahim to Saurabh Anand from India, Hamad Al Ali to David Brinove from Slovenia, Abdullah Al Mualla to Deniz Ozen from Turkey and Jasem Yousuf to Lukas Leisch from Austria.
In the girls’ under-14s, all four UAE players lost out. Wadema Kalbani lost to Yujia Liu from China, Mozeh Al Muammari went down to Thi Minh Oanh Nguyen from Vietnam, Sahima Noman lost to Ananya Suresh from India and Faraj Rodha fell to Feng Maggie from USA.
The UAE participants in the Under-14 Open fared no better as Mayed Al Rashidi lost to Shahin Lorparizangeneh from Iran, Saif Idris Al Hamed fell to Ortick Nigantov from Uzbekistan and Mohammad Marshool lost to Adham Fawzy from Egypt.
Bashaer Khalil and Mira Sarhan, representing the UAE in the under-16 girls competition, lost to Martina Fushova from the Czech Republic and Elizaveta Chetina from Russia respectively,
Reigning champion Anna Styazhkina from Russia opened her campaign with a win over Turkey’s Yesim Patel and will face Katsiaryna Beinenson from Belarus in the second round.
The UAE failed to register any positive results in the under-18s competitions as Amnah Noman lost to Irina Bivol from Russia, Salma Al Dhaffari to Jana Marikova from the Czech Republic and Mariam Mohammad Salem to Chentelle Foster from England while their male compatriots Abdullah Murad and Ahmad Al Zarouni lost out to Damian Lawtak from Poland and Till Schreiner from Germany respectively.
