Arkady Dvorkovic, President of the International Chess Federation, Hussein Al Khoury, President of Abu Dhabi Chess Club, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Festival, Dr.
Arkady released the starting badge from the first table, in which the UAE champions Salem Abdel Rahman and Al-Masry Bassem Amin were present, while the official launch of the event was preceded by heritage performances by the Harbiye Heritage Troupe.
The ceremony began with the playing of the country’s national anthem, with the entry of 3 players from Abu Dhabi Club in national dress carrying pictures of the late, God Almighty, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, “may God rest his soul”, and His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State “may God protect him.” “, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, before Hussein Al Khoury delivered a speech in which he welcomed the distinguished guests and participants in the event, and then the Emirati hero Rawda Al Serkal, who expressed her happiness at being at the festival, and thanked the organizers. and participants.
For his part, Arkady Dvorkovich revealed that he was surprised that the Abu Dhabi International Festival was launched in 1991 in its first edition, expressing his great admiration for the event’s preservation of its continuity throughout these years, and said: I think it is a great opportunity to organize these competitions, in conjunction with Expo Dubai 2020, we see in The hall has a large number of participants from all levels, especially children, and they represent the future of the game. I think we must support the game, and this contributes to highlighting many promising players, especially for the UAE national team, before the Moscow Olympics.
He added: I see that the vitality of chess competitions is usually after the Corona pandemic, and this is very important, especially since Abu Dhabi is a great supporter of the game.
In terms of results, it participated in the top spot in the Masters Championship of Speed Chess, with the end of the fourth round of the Kazakh Rinat Jamabayev, and the Iranian Barham Maksudlu with 3.5 points each, and the Egyptian Bassem Amin third with 3 points, equal with the same balance with the Ukrainian Pavel Ilyanov.
The Armenian Maria Kevorkian topped the Open Championship at the end of the fourth round, with a full score of 4 points, and the Lebanese Mark Nassar, who occupies second place, is equal with her, while in third place, 8 players with 3 points each, and they are the Emiratis Sultan Al Darmaki, Hamad Essam, Moza Al Mansouri, The Filipinos, Demacroute Francis and widow Abu Sija, the Ukrainians Ava Sulimanova, the Lebanese Katrian and the Egyptian Mohamed Al-Nimr.
As for the junior championship, the cards are still mixed, and the position of the lead is not clear, as 6 players succeeded in collecting the full mark of points at the end of the fourth round, and they are from India, Dave Gubin, Rakchan Majorta, Harsha Vardini, Alfred
