Chess On The Nile :A Tournament Of Hope !

In Cairo (Arabic: القاهرة transliteration: al-Qāhira), that means "the triumphant", which is the capital and largest city of Egypt ,one of the most important chess events took place: Egyptian Youth Chess Champion-chip ‏‏ 2009 in Nahr Elnil hotel (which means :Nile River hotel)as it is directly overlooking on the river Nile at El Maadi District which is a wealthy suburb south of Cairo from 7-12 th of February. The tournament which was a Swiss event of (9) rounds attracted 198 players (160 boys and 38 girls) of young Egyptian talents from all over the country , whom where classified according to age and gender into 5 main categories as follows : 1) Boys U10: 26 players Girls U10 :10 players 2) Boys U12: 29 players Girls U12 :9 Players 3) Boys U14: 36 Players Girls U14 :10 Players 4) Boys U16: 49 Players Girls 16-18:9 Players 5) Boys U18: 20 Players The tournament had 2 players having official Fide titles :WGM\Mona khaled playing in boys U16 and FM\Andro Wagdy playing in boys U12 and also 5 rated players over 2000: Moheb Ameir (2081), Mohamed Nader (2013),WGM\Mona Khaled (2005) playing in boys U16 and Abd Elrahman Hesham (2085) , Marko Fadi (2037) playing in boys U18. The Egyptian Chess Federation bore the cost and fees of (1) boy and (1) girl from each region of the country to encourage as many players as possible to participate in the tournament. Final Results : 1) Boys U10: Girls U10: First :Mohamed Mahmoud First :Sherien Kamal Second:Mark Yasser Second:Laila Amin Third :Khaled El Ashkar Third :Dalia Ibrahim 2) Boys U12: Girls U12: First :Andro Wagdy First :Sherook Hamed Second:Mohamed Zalook Second : Sohayla Abdelmenaem Third :Mohamed Hussein Third : Shahenda Hamed 3) Boys U14: Girls U14: First :Mena Aziz First : Mona Abdelazem Second:Ahmed Magdy Second: Entsar Abdelnaby Third :Mohamed Osama Third : Mariah Saber 4) Boys U16: Girls 16-18: First :Mohamed Nader (2013) First : Ayat El Hakeem Second:Moheb Ameir (2081) Second: Amany Abdelmoneam Third :Mohamed Ayman Ghanaym Third : Eman Elansary 5) Boys U18: First :Abdelrahman Hesham (2085) Second:Marko Fadi (2037) Third :Mohamed Ehab The tournament was a very hard fought one for each participant ,that the final standings were unclear until the final moves of the games had been played in the last round. Students from Smouha Club Chess Academy (SCCA)-that was established in Alexandria under the auspices of well known business man engineer \Farag Amer chairman of Smouha Club-those students ;who had been playing chess for only 4 months surprised everyone and scored good results ; for example : In Girls U14 section :Youmna Mosaad made a great achievement and scored 6 points out of 9 and became fifth although she could have finished third but unfortunately in a critical game blundered away her queen while she was about to give her opponent a checkmate; and also In Boys U10 section :the very talented Abdelrahman Yasser Allam scored 5 points and finished 9th and also In Boys U12 section : the very talented Yasser Ibrahim played very fine games and finished the 12th and also Omar Mosaad played some good games in the same section but not with his full strength . Special Thanks : I very much want to thank: 1)Engineer\Farag Amer –the well known businessman and chairman of Smouha Club- who kindly supported the establishment of the first chess academy in Egypt and constantly helped to supply the academy with all chess equipments and encouraged the participation of SCCA students in the competition although they have been learning chess for only 4 months. 2) Madame Gihan El Sahaar -who is a member of board of the Egyptian Chess Federation and also WGM\Mona khaled mother- ;who is really an honest person and of great personality ;I want to thank her for her support and encouragement. 3)Chief-Arbiter \ I.A.Wagdy Lamie and Mr\Mohamed Farouk who made an incredible effort to make sure this tournament achieve huge success and constantly supervised the results on the web site : http://chess-results.com/fed.aspx?lan=1&fed=EGY which helped me a lot in this report. 4)Mr.\Mohamed saad who is a first class chess referee and a representative of Alexandria chess region ;who made an extremely hard work and effort to facilitate all conditions for the young chess players from Alexandria. 5)Engineer\John George –who is the Managing Director of Power Consult LLC www.powerconsultegypt.com ; email: john@powerconsultegypt.com -who provided me with his great photos for the event and the lovely scenes from Cairo which I really appreciate a lot. One Final Word : Why is it a tournament of hope ? because In Egypt ;a population of about 80 millions ;we have only 3 GMS :Ahmed Adly, Bassem Amin and Essam Elgindy .The real hope of having more GMS depends mainly on the youth ,which means the acceleration of wide spreading chess everywhere in the country ,and creating a chess culture so more boys and girls come in to play the royal game ,which the Egyptian Chess Federation –under the auspice of Chairman \Hussein Nafady- is trying to do . I always admire the words of the late Senator\Robert Kennedy –God bless his soul- “Some men see things as they are and say why ? I dream things that never where and say why not ?” I hope my dream comes true one day …and that is another story.
Here is the link for all the photos:http://tinyurl.com/ycqkv4t
Note:This article was published on Chessbase website:http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5318 on 27\3\2009