Amr ElJawish is the Champion of Lebanon 2017

As most of the spectators and players agreed, it was one of the tense round in the history of the Lebanese round robin individual championship. Any slip can tip the favor from one side to another. After the quick draw between Mahdi Kaouri and Marwan Sharbel, where the former secured his third place in the final standing, the attention was focused on the Elie Asmar – Faisal Khairallah and Samir Sursock – Amr EL-Jawish games. A decisive result between Elie and Faisal would give a chance for one of them to play a tie –break match with Amr, in case the later made a draw, or even to snatch the title in case of loss of the later.

The Modern defense appeared on Elie – Faisal board, where Faisal spent more than one hour on the opening stage, as Elie obtained a nice space advantage, and prospect to initiate an attack against Fasial’ s king. And indeed, he started his attack, but instead of keeping the tension, he rushed with opening the center, giving his opponent the chance to defend. Although he kept some chances to keep the game balanced, vexed by the turning of events, Elie succumbed to the exchanges trend initiated by Faisal, who reached a winning endgame. Elie’s resignation of the game was understandable.

The Maroczy bind that Samir adopted against Amr’s accelerated Dragon led him to acquire the normal space advantage, an advantage without converting it to a more tangible one is nothing. Amr profited from the modest play of his opponent, winning an important pawn in the center. The rook+knight endgame was a tricky one and nice to observe. Amr’s active king made the difference, as he helped his minor pieces in creating mating threats against Samir’s king. Between losing a knight, followed soon by a mat, or mating his king immediately, Samir preferred to stop the clock, announcing Amr as the winner of the championship.

The play on the other boards wasn’t dull either. The solid draw between AbdelAziz Mahmoud and Marawan Nassar was eclipsed by the heat of Ralph Khairallah – Antoine Kassis and Tarek Moudallal – Ahmad Najjar games. The Closed Sicilain played by Ralph led to typical plan for both players. Antoine profited from the slow attack of Ralph to apply the typical plan in this opening: an initiative on the queen side and in the center, which netted him an important pawn with domination on the dark squares. Confused with what plan to adopt, Ralph played some aimless waiting moves, permitted Antoine to construct a matting attack on the white’s king. Ralph didn’t find any solution other than stopping the clock.

The encounter between Tarek and Ahmad was explosive. The way Tarek used the whole board to attack on the dark squares is impressive. What is more impressive is how he trapped the black queen and refused to gain some materials to liberate it. The sacrifices he made to attack Ahmad’s king are, in my opinion, splendid. Missing a mat in 4 (35 Be5!!), instead of the played (35 RxBg7!!) doesn’t matter too much, as mat is going to appear soon. All roads lead to Rome. So, Ahmad ‘s resignation is justified.

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