I was very reluctant in writing this article, as I knew by a pure coincidence that Lebanon was participating in the Asian Nations Cup in Abu Dhabi. By browsing the chess-results site, UAE page, it was a happy surprise to see Lebanon among the nations list. Another click on the team composition link put a happy smile on my face: Fadi Eid is back!! (Nothing to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s J ).
Below is the team composition with players’ results in the classical competition:
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Pts | Gam. | % | Rtg-Ø | |
| 1 | IM | Eid Fadi | 2352 | LIB | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4½ | 8 | 56.3 | 2305 | |
| 2 | FM | El Jawich Amro | 2241 | LIB | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4½ | 8 | 56.3 | 2204 | |
| 3 | Bassel Charaf | 2112 | LIB | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 60.0 | 2006 | |||||
| 4 | Asmar Elie | 2051 | LIB | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 2½ | 8 | 31.3 | 2171 | ||
| Maasarani Mahmoud | 2052 | LIB | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 42.9 | 2125 |
Seeded as 12th, in the classical competition, they finished as they started:
| Final ranking | |||||||
| Rank | Team | Gam. | + | = | - | MP | Pts. |
| 1 | India | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 26 |
| 2 | China | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 27½ |
| 3 | Kazakhstan | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 23 |
| 4 | Iran | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 23½ |
| 5 | Uzbekistan | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 23 |
| 6 | Mongolia | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 20½ |
| 7 | Bangladesh | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 20½ |
| 8 | UAE 1 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 18½ |
| 9 | Vietnam | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 20½ |
| 10 | Kyrgyzstan | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 19½ |
| 11 | Iraq | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 18½ |
| 12 | Lebanon | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 17½ |
| 13 | Afghanistan | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 17 |
| 14 | Oman | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 15½ |
| 15 | Sri Lanka | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 15 |
| 16 | Jordan | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 13½ |
| 17 | Palestine | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 16 |
| 18 | UAE 2 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 14 |
| 19 | Nepal | 9 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 11½ |
| 20 | Kuwait | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 11½ |
| 21 | Tajikistan | 9 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 13 |
| 22 | UAE 3 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 10½ |
The round-by-round pairings and results were as follows:
| Rd. | SNo. | Team | MP | Res. | C |
| 1 | 1 | China | 15 | ½ | b |
| 2 | 11 | Kyrgyzstan | 9 | ½ | w |
| 3 | 20 | Nepal | 5 | 3 | b |
| 4 | 17 | Palestine | 7 | 2½ | w |
| 5 | 13 | Jordan | 8 | 3½ | b |
| 6 | 7 | Mongolia | 10 | ½ | w |
| 7 | 9 | UAE 1 | 10 | 1 | b |
| 8 | 10 | Iraq | 9 | 2 | w |
| 9 | 21 | UAE 3 | 2 | 4 | b |
Did you notice something? China couldn’t get a clean result! Amr El Jawich succeeded in drawing against the super young talent GM Wei Yi who has the phenomenal rating 2714.
Following the live transmission of the games of the first and second rounds, I noticed that the results and the games moves were not as they occurred actually over the boards. After some (WhatsApp) chatting with Amr, and comparing other live games of other teams, I concluded that the organizer’s technical team has connected the DGT boards in a wrong way, which caused chaos among the spectators, the viewers and the reporters alike, producing wrong games and results of teams/players pairings, a problem fixed later at the start of round 3. No one is perfect.
I will not criticize each player’s performance and technicity of play, as each one is capable of doing this by himself. Enough to mention that the lack of local tournaments and time gap between them took its toll in the players’ playing technique (e.g. during January, February and March there wasn’t even a Blitz tournamentL ).
Even though, finishing as 3rd Arabic nation is an indication for the willingness of the Lebanese players. This is not strange, as in nearly every game, the Lebanese player wants, likes and tries to attack from move 1. And this is normal after a long break from chess-over-the-board. Hope that in the participation of forthcoming local events will calm them down, as playing cool has its rewards too.
In the Rapid Cup (5 rounds qualification phase), the team result was as follows:
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Pts | Gam. | % | Rtg-Ø | |
| 1 | IM | Eid Fadi | 2357 | LIB | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 40.0 | 2385 |
| 2 | FM | El Jawich Amro | 2247 | LIB | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 3½ | 5 | 70.0 | 2281 |
| 3 | Bassel Charaf | 2068 | LIB | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 50.0 | 2199 | ||
| 4 | Asmar Elie | 2030 | LIB | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1½ | 5 | 30.0 | 2101 | |
| Maasarani Mahmoud | 2016 | LIB | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 1995 |
With a final qualification phase standing:
| Rank | Team | Gam. | + | = | - | MP | Pts. |
| 1 | India | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 15½ |
| 2 | Vietnam | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 15 |
| 3 | Iran | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 15 |
| 4 | China | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 14½ |
| 5 | Bangladesh | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 12 |
| 6 | Kazakhstan | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 13 |
| 7 | Uzbekistan | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 12 |
| 8 | Mongolia | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 12 |
| 9 | Kyrgyzstan | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 12 |
| 10 | UAE 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
| 11 | Lebanon | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9 |
| 12 | Qatar | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 9 |
| 13 | Afghanistan | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| 14 | Iraq | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7½ |
| 15 | Sri Lanka | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 9½ |
| 16 | Tajikistan | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8½ |
| 17 | Kuwait | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 7½ |
| 18 | Jordan | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6½ |
| 19 | Oman | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5½ |
| 20 | UAE 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| 21 | Nepal | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 22 | Palestine | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
With the pairings/results:
| 12 Lebanon Rank: 11 | |||||
| Rd. | SNo. | Team | MP | Res. | C |
| 1 | 1 | China | 7 | 0 | b |
| 2 | 21 | UAE 2 | 3 | 3½ | w |
| 3 | 17 | Afghanistan | 4 | 3 | b |
| 4 | 11 | UAE 1 | 5 | 2 | w |
| 5 | 3 | Vietnam | 8 | ½ | b |
So, the Lebanese team improved his overall final standing by one step, and finished 11th and 2nd among the Arabs J (though China didn’t repeat its mistakeL against Lebanon and went to win the Rapid and Blitz Cups).
In the Blitz Cup, the team composition and results were as follows:
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Pts | Gam. | % | Rtg-Ø | |
| 1 | IM | Eid Fadi | 2366 | LIB | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 40.0 | 2326 |
| 2 | FM | El Jawich Amro | 2176 | LIB | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 60.0 | 2225 |
| 3 | Bassel Charaf | 2114 | LIB | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 60.0 | 2066 | |
| 4 | Asmar Elie | 2035 | LIB | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 60.0 | 2042 |
With a final standing in the qualification phase:
| Rank | Team | Gam. | + | = | - | MP | Pts. |
| 1 | China | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 16 |
| 2 | India | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 12½ |
| 3 | Vietnam | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 13½ |
| 4 | Kazakhstan | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 13½ |
| 5 | Mongolia | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 13½ |
| 6 | Iran | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 13 |
| 7 | Uzbekistan | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 12 |
| 8 | Bangladesh | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 11½ |
| 9 | Lebanon | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 11 |
| 10 | Kyrgyzstan | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9½ |
| 11 | Afghanistan | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9½ |
| 12 | Nepal | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9½ |
| 13 | Iraq | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 9 |
| 14 | Qatar | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 10½ |
| 15 | Sri Lanka | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 9½ |
| 16 | UAE 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6½ |
| 17 | Tajikistan | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| 18 | Jordan | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| 19 | Palestine | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3½ |
| 20 | UAE 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| 21 | Oman | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| 22 | Kuwait | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
The round-by-round pairing/results as follows:
| 11 Lebanon Rank: 9 | |||||
| Rd. | SNo. | Team | MP | Res. | C |
| 1 | 1 | China | 9 | 0 | b |
| 2 | 10 | Iraq | 5 | 2 | w |
| 3 | 22 | UAE 2 | 4 | 4 | b |
| 4 | 12 | UAE 1 | 2 | 3 | w |
| 5 | 14 | Kyrgyzstan | 5 | 2 | b |
And they did it! Lebanon toped the Arabic nations in the Blitz Cup JJ
A personal message: The LCF has to embrace each player officially representing Lebanon in any international event on multiple levels: media and technical wise, which happens before, during and after the mentioned event. In addition, satisfaction is accomplished not by snapping a couple of selfies nor letting the big chess family rely on coincidence for supporting their members. (It is interesting to know how much each player earned pocket money as a compensation for their taken day-offs).
Click here to download the games.