Jasem catches Salem on the wrong foot

The Twin Towers chess tournament, part of Dubai Summer Surprises Sports week, got underway on Thursday with a record number of 58 participants competing for the prestigious title.

Seven rated players are competing for the trophy along with talented junior players from the UAE.

The first round saw a surprising draw by unrated player Jasem Mohammed Ali of UAE against title holder Salem Gholoum of UAE.

Unrated player Mohammed Al Rais of UAE also held Lebanon's Abdo Somoff to a draw.

Top-seeded Grand Master Sergei Arkhipov of Russia (rating 2,499), favourite for the title, easily defeated Hamid Mohammed Ali. Second seed FIDE master Othman Moussa of UAE (rating 2370) also prevailed over Hussein Mohammed Hussein.

Third seed Vishal Sareen of India (rating 2,343) scored the fastest win while defeating Hussein Al Sayed of Egypt in just 12 minutes.

The tournament was inaugurated on Thursday evening at the Twin Towers Shopping Centre.

Abdullah Al Amiri, Member of the UAE Chess Federation (UAECF) and Maher Mallah, Operations Manager of Twin Towers attended the opening ceremony. The event is organised by the UAECF for the third year in row and sponsored by the Twin Towers.

The seven round swiss tournament has attracted players from Russia, Egypt, Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Iran, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Kenya and Yemen.

Results (round one):

Arkhipov Serguei (1) beat Hameed Mohammed Ali (0); Hussein Mohammed Hussein (0) lost to Othman Moussa (1); Vishal Sareen (1) lost to Hussain Alsaid Ramda (0); Jasem Mohamed Ali (.5) drew with Salem Ghuloum (.5); Tony Molina (1) beat Jony P. I. (0); Ali Shaheen Mohammed (1) beat Khalil Mahmoud (0); Liaqat Ali Mohammed (0) lost to Saif Hassen Mohamed (1); Mohammed Ahmed Alrais (.5) drew with Abdo Somoff (.5); Khalifa Khamis (1) beat Mohammed Hassan Ahmed (0); Mohammed Ibrahim (1) beat Khaled Khamis (0); Mohammed Shariq Khan (0) lost to Abdul Saam Abdul Rahi (1); Abdulkareem Ali (0) lost to Mohammed Zamir (1); Mukesh Chetwani (0) lost to Abdullah Omar (1); Abdulrahman Omar (1) beat N. Venugopal (0); Nagarjan V. Kumar (.5) drew with Adel Ali Abdulkareem (.5); G. Lain De (.5) drew with Ajay Virwani (.5); Alexander Valerio (1) lost to R. Sharar Prasad (0); Ram Ganapathy (1) beat Ali Hassan Abdullah (0); Ali Khamis Ali (1) beat Ram Venkat (0); S.C. Balaji (0) lost to Almajed Abdulrazzaq (1); Augusto Marcial (1) beat Shakeel Ahmad (0); Surwal Kosi Danfore (1) beat Carlos Pacho (0); Gardy Sorita (1) beat Viadimir Ciemil (0).