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Round 4: Forfeit, Peace, and Sacrifices

Each round has its own merits. It started with the win of Amr ElJawish over Elie Asmar by forfeit on board 4, as the later didn’t appear to play his fourth game. The peace signature on board 1, as early as move 20, between Dr. Mahmoud Maasarani and Antoine Kassis, indicated the first sign of fatigue of the players and the high tension the title of the event is making on the players’ shoulders.

But different stories were happening on other boards. On board 2, Khaled Shehab, playing Black against Ibrahim Chahrour, adopted the solid Caro-Kann defense. The former spent too much time trying to find a plan to worry White, resulted in a bad one that led him to expose his queen, forcing him to sacrifice the exchange. The central strategy applied by Ibrahim wasn’t too difficult to find, and a trapped black bishop on a4 convinced Khaled to stop the clock.

A beautiful attack conducted by Bassel Charaf with the black pieces against Jamal Shamieh on board 3 showed the real potential of the talent that Bassel has and that he is a real threat for all the players. A fantastic offer of a knight on move 13, wisely declined by Jamal, followed by an aesthetic Bishop move to f1 (yes, the black bishop) crowed the attacking strategy initiated by Bassel, who profited from the too-defensive setup of the White pieces. The liquidation of pieces to reach the endgame phase, where White remained with a piece down convinced Jammal to stop the clock.

Nearly the same scenario happened on board 5, as on the 3^rd, between Ahmad Najjar and Marwan Sharbel, but in a more classical way. A too defensive setup by Marwan was no needed for Ahmad to construct a dangerous attack against the black king. The infiltration of the white queen on c7, threatening mat or winning the b7 bishop forced Marwan to exchange queens, and to resign, as the coming knight fork was on Ahmad ‘s agenda, winning the same bas bishop.

The board 6 witnessed the famous Staunton Gambit, adopted by Faisal Khairallah, as White, again AbdelAziz Mahmoud’s Dutch defense. The later accepted the offered pawn, then played precise moves. Then something happened that pushed AbdelAziz into deep thought, to come with an imprecise liquidation plan, a plan which was welcomed by Faisal, as his King, Rook and Knight started infiltrated the Black ‘s king side. In order to reduce Faisal’ strong initiative, AbdelAziz was forced to play nearly the only moves to let him survive, except one, castling,(put the rook on d8 was much better), to find himself from one pawn up to two pawns down, an enough reason to stop the clock.

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