Lebanesechess.com

Half an hour is a half round

As I put it in the title of the current article, that what happened. After 30 minutes of the start of the round, the encounter on table 4 between Jamal Shamiyeh (White) and Tarek Moudallal was sold, in a balanced position,  by a draw agreement; while Dr. Mahmoud Maasarani (White) and Amir Abou ElHissen (Black) won their games on the corresponding tables 5 and 6 by forfeit of their corresponding opponents, Mahdi Kaouri and Bassel Sharaf, after the 30 minutes tolerance. That was the first lost by this manner in this championship, and I hope it will be the last.

On table 1, another awaited encounter was taking place between Amr ElJawish (White) and Faisal Khairallah, where the later surprised his opponent by adopting the Caro-Kann defense. The former replied by another surprise: the Panov attack, forcing both gladiators to play precise moves in order to keep the balance. Both players entered the middle game phase with great tension on the board. A tactical shot by Amr on move 22 could earn him a pawn, and very possibly the point, but he missed it, allowing Faisal to liquidate into a symmetrical material balance with sharing of the game point.

Another disaster game for Mohammad Mikati occurred on table 2 when he faced, with the white pieces, Antoine Kassis. After less than 60 minutes of play, he found himself a bishop down for 2 pawns, with all the white squares around his king under Antoine’s control. An exposed king, with mat threats on the files, ranks and diagonals forced Mohammad to dispose his arms.

The exchange variation in the classical KID was adopted by the experienced Ahmad Najjar , as White, against the young Ibrahim Shahrour. Exchanging his white squares bishop for Ahmad’s knight was a risky strategy adopted by the later. The former profited from the d-file and white squares weakness in the Black camp to tie down Black’s pieces. A pawn in Ahmad’s bag, supported by a passed one on the queen side, forced Ibrahim to sacrifice his knight, with the hope of changing the trend of the game, but in vain.

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Standing after round 8:

Elo rating statistics of the players after round 8: