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Round 5: a Round for Black

The quick look at the games statistics after 5 rounds of play gives a new impression: are the players better prepared to play on the Black side? Or they don’t handle the white pieces in a more respectable way? Till now, 13 games won by Black, 10 won by White, with 7 games ended in a tie. Although some games could go either way, this indicates that the modern international approach to the game has started influencing the Lebanese players: Black doesn’t want just to equalize from the first moves; he wants more.

Board 1 game between AbdelAziz Mahmoud and Dr. Mahmoud Maasarani was the first to finish. Blitzing in a cetain way their moves, Maasarani created what it seems an initiative on the queen side. AbdelAziz emerged with a nice advantage. Maasarani tried to complicate the position, and he succeeded, as AbdelAziz fell down in the trap, was forced to lose materials and the game point.

A Budapest Gambit played by Faisal Khairallah against Marwan Sharbel on board 2 made its effect on Marwan. He reacted dubiously to Faisal’ surprise opening, leaving the later in a stable advantage. This advantage resulted in winning a pawn, then a second one, followed by the game point.

Board 3 witnessed a very exciting game between Elie Asmar and Ahmad Najjar. Elie got a normal advantage from the opening, to be surprised, by the early artificial castling adopted by Ahmad (Ke8-f8-g8-h7). This resulted in an unclear middle game. Being faithful to his style, Ahmad tried to generate an attack on Elie’s king. The later was up to the task of defending, calculated well, found the gap in Ahmad’s plan, resulted in bagging in the exchange and a pawn. Ahmad tried as much as he can to complicate the game. And he succeeded as Elie started to make some imprecise moves, throwing away the gained materials, and reaching a drawn rook+pawn endgame. The peace was signed after 5 hours of play.

Board 4 witnessed another peace signature between Bassel Sharaf and Amr ElJawish. The transposition of moves to a closed Sicilian resulting in an interesting middle game fight. A somewhat slow play by Bassel gave Amr a slight advantage that could be accentuated 23..Bf5 , instead of the weaker 23..Ba4. The repetition of moves made both players feel relaxed to the peaceful conclusion.

A crazy game was played on board 5 between Khaled Shihab and Jamal Shamieh. A Bogo-Indian defense adopted by Jamal resulted in a typical middle game. Then, he offered the b-pawn to his opponent. Khaled grabbed it, and consolidated his position. In order to create more complications, Jamal centralized his pieces, and even offered a gift, a knight, to his opponent, which was gladly accepted. A clear mind was needed to resist Jamal’s attack, and Khaled needed to play nearly the only moves to keep his advantage. Just one moment of relaxation resulted in making Khaled a mistaken move, throwing away his accumulated advantages. In a try to  liquidate the pieces to reach a fortress, Khaled made another mistake, giving Jamal a strong passed g-pawn. A calm play and a nice technique by Jamal enabled him to collect the point.

A tense battle on Board 6 between Antoine Kassis and Ibrahim Chahrour. The resulted middle game let Antoine get a static advantage. The phase of pieces maneuvering has started, till a certain moment arose, when a weak move played by White (21 Nh3?!, instead of the better 21 Nf3 followed by Nh2, challenging the g4-knight) enabled  Ibrahim to equalize immediately. The offer of the peace on move 32 by the later was accepted by the former.

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