Who will be the Champion?
With every round and every game the tension grows, especially on the leaders’ boards. Take for example board 3 game between Maya Jalloul (White) and Antoine Kassis. Nearly everyone expected an easy win of Tony over Maya, forgetting that she succeeded in drawing her game with the current champion Faisal Khairallah. The offer of a draw by Tony was gladly accepted by Maya, an offer that even Tony couldn’t believe himself how he made it in a somewhat superior position.
Another typical psychological situation occurred on board 6 between Bassel Charaf (White) and Ibrahim Chahrour. In an English Opening, Bassel obtained the typical initiative on the queen side, meanwhile Ibrahim was trying all-the-way attack on the king side. Then suddenly, Ibrahim started to miscalculate variations and played weak moves, enabling Bassel to cash in some materials and later the exchange. One unnoticed mistake by Bassel (I keep to you, dear reader, to discover it) could reverse the situation, but the time trouble had his say and Ibrahim dropped a rook, the point. This enabled Anotine Kassis to join him in the lead of the championship, followed by just half a point difference by Ahmad Najjar, who profited from the bad form of Amr ElJawish to inflict on him his 3rd consecutive loss.
In a Symmetrical variation of the English Opening (again!), Dr. Mahmoud Maasarani (White) and Faisal Khairallah played very solidly. It was too solidly for Dr. Mahmoud as Faisal systematically starts an initiative on the queen side, then shifted it to the center of the board, and landed the final attack on the king side, a game reminiscent of the classical school, where no mistake was apparent made by White.
While Tarek Moudallal on board 2 got a free round time (and the game point) due to the forfeit/absence of his opponent Marwan Nassar, the English Opening (again and again) played on board 3 between Nadim Hammoud (White) and AbdelAziz ELMahmoud has a different story. Whom is attacking whom was the scenario adopted by both parties of this interesting game. A black out by Nadim enabled AbdelAziz to net materials and the game point.
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| SNo. | Name | Rtg | Res. | Name | Rtg | SNo. | ||
| 12 | Maasarani Mahmoud | 2109 | 0 - 1 | FM | Khairallah Faisal | 2271 | 11 | |
| 1 | Nassar Marwan | 2091 | 0F - 1F | Moudallal Tarek | 1968 | 10 | ||
| 2 | Hammoud Nadim | 1944 | 0 - 1 | CM | Abdulaziz Mahmoud | 2074 | 9 | |
| 3 | WFM | Jalloul Maya M. | 1942 | ½ - ½ | FM | Kassis Antoine | 2166 | 8 |
| 4 | FM | El Jawich Amro | 2173 | 0 - 1 | FM | Najjar Ahmad | 2263 | 7 |
| 5 | Bassel Charaf | 2070 | 1 - 0 | FM | Chahrour Ibrahim | 1980 | 6 |
Rank after Round 10:
| Rank | SNo. | Name | IRtg | Pts | Wins | Draws | Loses | Res. | Koya | SB | vict | |
| 1 | 8 | FM | Kassis Antoine | 2166 | 7.5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1.0 | 4.5 | 37.00 | 5 |
| 2 | 6 | FM | Chahrour Ibrahim | 1980 | 7.5 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 0.0 | 3.5 | 30.25 | 7 |
| 3 | 7 | FM | Najjar Ahmad | 2263 | 7.0 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 26.00 | 7 |
| 4 | 5 | Bassel Charaf | 2070 | 6.5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 4.0 | 28.75 | 5 | |
| 5 | 11 | FM | Khairallah Faisal | 2271 | 5.5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1.5 | 4.0 | 27.00 | 3 |
| 6 | 12 | Maasarani Mahmoud | 2109 | 5.5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 19.25 | 5 | |
| 7 | 9 | CM | Abdulaziz Mahmoud | 2074 | 5.5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 24.50 | 3 |
| 8 | 4 | FM | El Jawich Amro | 2173 | 5.0 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 18.25 | 3 |
| 9 | 10 | Moudallal Tarek | 1968 | 3.5 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 13.25 | 3 | |
| 10 | 1 | Nassar Marwan | 2091 | 3.5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 12.00 | 3 | |
| 11 | 2 | Hammoud Nadim | 1944 | 1.5 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 4.00 | 1 | |
| 12 | 3 | WFM | Jalloul Maya M. | 1942 | 1.5 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 9.75 | 0 |