SCCA Held First National Youth Tournament From 9\8\2009 to 16\8\2009

From 9\8\2009 to 16\8\2009 Smouha Club Chess Academy (SCCA) held its first national youth tournament under the auspice of the well known businessman Eng.\Mohamed Farag Amer –Chairman of Smouha Club- and members of board and organized by the Egyptian Chess Federation –Alexandria region. Alexandria (Arabic: الإسكندرية al-Iskandariyya;) is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport ;and known internationally as the pearl of the Mediterranean.

The tournament attracted 41 players (31 boys and 10 girls) whom competed in: boys U\8,10,12,14,16,18 and girls U\8,10,14 sections.Various systems were used :Swiss ,double round Robin …etc to suit the number of participants in each section.The games were played under Fischer control :1.5 hr plus 30 seconds time increment.

The organizing committee headed by Dr. Ismail Fayed –Vice President Of Smouha Club- and members of the committee :Eng.\Ahmed Hassan head of Sports Committee in Smouha Club ,Eng.Medhat Moheb(SCCA general director), IM\Aly Yasseen –SCCA technical director-,Mr.Islam Elmesery -SCCA administrative- made huge efforts to ensure the success of the event.

The arbiters of the tournament were :International referee Mr.Ahmed Youssef and first class referee Mr.Mohamed Saad.

The Results :

SCCA players dominated the event and came first followed by Alexandria Library in the second place and in third place came Eldahreya Youth Center

Boys U8 Mohab Yasser Allam Mark Medhat Moheb Nour Eldin Waleed Youssef Marwan Boys U10 Omar allaa Abd Elkader Seif Eldin Waleed Hassan Omar Mahfouz Omar Tarek Darwish Yehya Ahmed Mahmoud Boys U12 Andrew Halim Zakhary Yasser Mohamed Ibrahim Omar Khaled Mosaad Marwan Tarek Hafez Ahmed Sameh Salah Boys U14 Ahmed Bahgat Saad Boys U16 Ahmed Essam Mohamed Hussein Mohamed Hussein George Mourad Moustafa Tarek Hassan Hany Elsherif

Boys U18
Sherif Anter Mina Smy Girls U8 Sarah Adel Ibrahim Salma Wagdy Badr Eldin Saleh Nada Mohamed Abbas

Girls U10

Maha Sameh Ibrahim

Heba Hassan Elwazan

Girls U14

Aya Elmotazz Ba Allah

Yomna Khaled Mossa

Merna Nabil

Neira Mohamed Tawfik

Rowan Abd Elrahman

Also special trophies were given to the best game –which holds the name of the late IM\Essam Aly Ahmed who passed away several years ago –and was won by (Ahmed Sameh) for boys and (Aya ELmotazz) won the girls one ;and another trophy was given to the best combination which holds the name of ex world Champion Bobby Fischer and was won by (AbdElrahman Yasser Allam) and a special trophy was given to the youngest participant in the tournament (Youssef Marwan).

The closing ceremony was very successful and was attended by the honorable personalities :Mr\Hussein Nefady –Chairman of the Egyptian Chess Federation- Mr.\Hassan Khaled –the international lecturer and technical advisor for the Egyptian Chess Federation and the god father for all Egyptian young talents-and Mr\Ahmed Yehya head of the coaches committee in the Egyptian Chess Federation ;Eng.\Atef Morsy vice president of Alexandria region ,and the great actor Mr\Mohamed Osman ;also Mr.Yehya Musallam the ex deputy of the Egyptian chess federation and the international arbiter ;also attended the ceremony from Smouha club: Dr. Ismail Fayed –Vice President Of Smouha Club- and Mr.Ihab Hamido-General Manger of Smouha Club- whom I would like to thank a lot for their support and encouragement.

In his speech Mr.Hussein Nefady thanked Eng.Farag Amer and Smouha club for supporting chess and he stated that he hopes Alexandria region brings more talents like the late IM\Essam Aly and he added that he atended the closing ceremony to encourage young boys and girls to continue play chess and he hoped that Egypt will have great champions in the future.

Dr.Ismail Fayed saluted the honorable guests and said that Smouha Club supports chess and cares about all sports ;that a great breakthrough in all activities is clear to everyone and he wished all the players and guests good luck and success .

I said in my speech that “Eng.Farag Amer has done a huge breakthrough by the establishment and the support of SCCA ;and the current Egyptian Chess Federation has done a lot to chess that for the first time 6 Egyptian players have made their way to the next world cup …I finally said that :In this World that is full of hatred, intolerance and all kinds and forms of violence …we need to encourage more boys and girls in our country to play chess …as chess helps to widespread values such as love ,tolerance , peace and acceptance of the other ones”.

One final word :”Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time…..We are the ones we have been waiting for “!! US President Barack Obama –who inspired millions of youth thirsty for change all over the world- once said during his campaign……I believe that the time has come to change the conditions of Chess in Egypt for the better in the near future.

I want to thank Engineer \John George for supplying me with the wonderful photos of Alexandria.

The link to all the photos is here :

http://tinyurl.com/yzj9nnu