Jamal Shamiyeh is back!!
With 6.5 (!!) points out of 7 possible ones, and a full point difference from his followers, Jamal proved that he is a force that can be reckoned with. Every one (nearly) expected that the seed number 1 FM Amr El Jawish will win it easily, but round 3 board 1 encounter had its own story. Amr, playing White, was trying to squeeze as much as he can from his somewhat superior space advantage, to be faced with a robust play from Jamal. In a rook endgame, the former was trying to find a win, which didn’t exist; and, as time trouble looming, instead of satisfying himself with splitting the point with his opponent, he committed his only mistake, but it was a deadly one.
In the remaining rounds, Jamal’s experienced opponents lost to him. At the 7th and last round, by the rules of the pairing system, he was paired with Elie Asmar, who made a nice race in the tournament, except on round 5 when he lost by forfeit against the same Jamal! In this type of tournaments, the pressure of qualifying to the Final is putting on the shoulders of every player, resulting in a quick draw on board 1 between Elie and Jamal, and on board 2 between Amr and Khaled Shihab, securing their visas to the Final.
In the meantime, the fight was taking rage on boards 3 to 9. It was (a do or die) case. Marwan Sharbel repulsed the imaginative attack of Tarek Moudallal; Dr. Mahmoud Maasarani squeezed his win from nowhere against Nadim Hammoud; AbdelAziz ElMahmoud demonstrated what a passed pawn with opposite color bishops and queens on board can do against Rawad ElAyyash; Marwan Nassar profited from Oussama Hawhar’ s exposed king, Adnan Khalil’s early combination netted him an exchange against Mohammad Farhat and Elie Hanna’ ‘s piece sacrifice didn’t work against the solid Hassan Jouni.
The final standing after round 7 was:
| Rank | SNo. | Name | Rtg | Pts | BH. | |
| 1 | 7 | Shamieh Jamal | 2067 | 6.5 | 21.5 | |
| 2 | 8 | Asmar Elie | 2001 | 5.5 | 21.0 | |
| 3 | 9 | Sharbel Marwan | 1978 | 5.5 | 19.0 | |
| 4 | 1 | FM | El Jawich Amro | 2147 | 5.5 | 19.0 |
| 5 | 3 | Maasarani Mahmoud | 2111 | 5.0 | 21.5 | |
| 6 | 2 | Shihab Khaled | 2133 | 5.0 | 20.5 | |
| 7 | 5 | CM | Abdulaziz Mahmoud | 2087 | 5.0 | 20.0 |
| 8 | 6 | Nassar Marwan | 2070 | 5.0 | 19.5 | |
| 9 | 4 | Kaouri Mahdi | 2096 | 5.0 | 18.5 | |
| 10 | 44 | Khalil Adnan | 0 | 5.0 | 17.0 | |
| 11 | 10 | Moudallal Tarek | 1955 | 4.5 | 17.5 | |
| 12 | 55 | Zeidan Mohammad | 0 | 4.5 | 16.5 | |
| 13 | 12 | Jouni Hassan | 1895 | 4.5 | 15.5 | |
| 14 | 11 | Hammoud Nadim | 1919 | 4.0 | 19.5 | |
| 15 | 16 | Tarraf Tarraf | 1728 | 4.0 | 18.0 | |
| 16 | 47 | Nasser Youssef | 0 | 4.0 | 18.0 | |
| 17 | 14 | Elayyash Rawad | 1806 | 4.0 | 17.5 | |
| 18 | 13 | Bohlok Houssam | 1865 | 4.0 | 17.5 | |
| 19 | 40 | Jawhar Oussama | 0 | 4.0 | 17.0 | |
| 20 | 35 | Haidar Wassim | 0 | 4.0 | 17.0 | |
| 54 | Ward Serge | 0 | 4.0 | 17.0 | ||
| 22 | 39 | Hijazi Mohammed M | 0 | 4.0 | 17.0 | |
| 23 | 17 | Mikati Hani | 1688 | 4.0 | 16.5 | |
| 24 | 51 | Salameh Rami | 0 | 4.0 | 13.0 | |
| 25 | 32 | Farhat Mohamed | 0 | 3.5 | 20.0 | |
| 26 | 38 | Hanna Elie | 0 | 3.5 | 17.0 | |
| 27 | 31 | Farhat Jawad | 0 | 3.5 | 15.5 | |
| 28 | 30 | Farhat Hady | 0 | 3.5 | 15.5 | |
| 29 | 50 | Saadeh Antoine | 0 | 3.5 | 14.0 | |
| 30 | 34 | Ghnatios Ralph | 0 | 3.0 | 17.5 | |
| 31 | 15 | Abou El Hussen Amir | 1750 | 3.0 | 17.0 | |
| 32 | 48 | Oknayan Krikor | 0 | 3.0 | 16.5 | |
| 33 | 20 | Kabalan Mohamad | 1419 | 3.0 | 14.5 | |
| 34 | 42 | Kfoury Raymond | 0 | 3.0 | 13.0 | |
| 35 | 27 | Edelbi Ahmad | 0 | 3.0 | 12.0 | |
| 36 | 49 | Rashidi Rabih | 0 | 2.5 | 17.5 | |
| 37 | 23 | Aoun Sohad | 0 | 2.5 | 16.5 | |
| 38 | 41 | Kassas Mohamad | 0 | 2.5 | 15.5 | |
| 39 | 46 | Khatib Mohamad | 0 | 2.5 | 15.5 | |
| 40 | 28 | El Jawich Muhammad | 0 | 2.5 | 14.5 | |
| 41 | 19 | El Saleh Riham | 1511 | 2.5 | 13.5 | |
| 42 | 24 | Bou Hamdan Samir | 0 | 2.0 | 17.0 | |
| 43 | 29 | Fakih Mohamad | 0 | 2.0 | 15.5 | |
| 44 | 25 | Chatila Abdulkader | 0 | 2.0 | 14.5 | |
| 45 | 36 | Hamdoun Jad | 0 | 1.5 | 15.0 | |
| 46 | 37 | Hamdoun Rian | 0 | 1.5 | 12.5 | |
| 47 | 53 | Tofaily Adnan | 0 | 1.0 | 15.0 | |
| 48 | 18 | Hamawi Karim | 1669 | 1.0 | 15.0 | |
| 49 | 21 | Bassam Adam | 1198 | 1.0 | 13.0 | |
| 50 | 43 | Khadra Michael | 0 | 1.0 | 12.5 | |
| 51 | 22 | Abou Adelah Ghassan | 0 | 0.0 | 13.0 | |
| 26 | Chokir Bilal | 0 | 0.0 | 13.0 | ||
| 33 | Ghattas Elias | 0 | 0.0 | 13.0 | ||
| 52 | Sayegh Nicolas | 0 | 0.0 | 13.0 | ||
| 55 | 45 | Khallouf Abdallah | 0 | 0.0 | 12.5 |
As the LCF board announced, the top seven will be qualified for the Final stage. So, these Magnificent Seven (do you know this movie?) are:
| 1 | Shamieh Jamal | |
| 2 | Asmar Elie | |
| 3 | Sharbel Marwan | |
| 4 | El Jawich Amro | |
| 5 | Maasarani Mahmoud | |
| 6 | Shihab Khaled | |
| 7 | Abdulaziz Mahmoud |
Who will join the top 5 2013 finalists:
- Ibrahim Shahrour (current champion)
- Ahmad Najjar
- Antoine Kassis
- Faisal Khairallah
- Bassel Charaf
It is worth to note that the only girl who participated in the qualification phase was Riham Saleh (Maya, Youmna, Danielle, Sara, Kanarik, Suzanne: where are you???), and also the courage of some young talents (under 8, 10 and 12), like mohamad ElJawish, Mohamad Kabalan, Adam Bassam, Rayan Hamdoun, Jad Hamdoun, who, with being a part of this event, sent a message to the audience: Chess is for all ages.
Click here to download the games.