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A round full of surprises

Everything can happen in chess. The contenders put away the calm play, and engaged in full battle over all boards. The top 2 rated masters Faisal Khairallah and Ahmad Najjar played some 15 moves of the Scandinavian Defense, from which Faisal, playing the white side, emerged with a considerable advantage: the bishop pair, supported with the space advantage, a better pawn structure and a considerable pressure on the Black somewhat cramped position. It was time to castle, but, surprisingly, Faisal, after putting his queen on the wrong a4 square (a3 was more suitable) presented Ahmad with a great opportunity to start turning the table with a strike on c5. Faisal tried as much as he can to complicate the position, but Ahmad was in command. Exchanging the queens enabled the later an easy endgame where the presence of rooks on the board alongside of the opposite color bishops permitted him to convert his advantage to a full point.

Bassel Charaf, playing White, continued with his Leko style against the leader Amr ElJawish. A very complicated position arose from the Pirc defense. After some ups and downs, the liquidation of pieces resulted in a complicated endgame, where the signed peace was a relief for both players.

The other surprise of this round was the win of Karim Hamaoui over Amir Abou ElHusn. In a calm endgame resulted from the Saemisch variation of the King’s Indian Defense, Amir, playing Black, thought that 26… Nxa2 will net him a pawn, to be shocked by the boomerang 28 Rc1! forcing Amir to capitulate.

Are you asking for another surprise? Well, just scroll down the game between Mohamad Salman and Elie Asmar. After obtaining a clear attacking prospects against the white king, Elie missed several strokes to convert his advantage to a more substantial one. A counter-play by Mohamad enabled him to profit from the bad coordination of black pieces. His active queen, supported by a strong passed d-pawn, worked perfectly to score his first over-the-board victory, as well as Karim’s.

Do you like to see a crazy game? Who doesn’t? I suggest to you to put the engine aside, set up your pieces on your wooden chess board and replay the moves of Antoine Kassis – AbdelAziz Mahmoud game. Whom is attacking whom is the kind of question that you will pose to yourself several times without reaching a conclusive answer. The perpetual check put a peaceful end to this highly tactical game that deserves to be replayed several times. It is a pity that there is no live transmission, as the audience is missing a lot of fun from this fighting championship.

The game between Dr. Mahmoud Maasarani and Jamal Shamiyeh finished with a draw after a long endgame full of maneuvering.

Ranking Crosstable after Round 9

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