A new and a step forward in the Arab chess calendar, an Elite tournament, assembling the highest rated players of each Arab country. The event is a new and original idea from the Arab Federation board. The starting list is as follows:
| 1 | GM | Adly Ahmed | EGY | 2605 |
| 2 | GM | Al-Modiahki Mohamad | QAT | 2564 |
| 3 | GM | Salem A R Saleh | UAE | 2489 |
| 4 | IM | Tissir Mohamed | MAR | 2454 |
| 5 | IM | Khader Sami | JOR | 2416 |
| 6 | IM | Al-Zendani Zendan | YEM | 2396 |
| 7 | IM | Eid Fadi | LIB | 2381 |
| 8 | FM | Mohammad Samir | SYR | 2349 |
| 9 | FM | Njili Kamel | TUN | 2329 |
| 10 | Elarbi Abobker | LBA | 2273 | |
| 11 | FM | Ayyad Husain | BRN | 2206 |
| 12 | Al-Hageri Badr | KUW | 2130 | |
| 13 | Yaaqoub Rashid | SUD | 2102 | |
| 14 | Daouda Sabar Ousmane | MTN | 2097 | |
| 15 | Tamra Attallah | PLE | 2090 |
As it can be seen, a strong field of players, headed by 3 Grand Masters, which implies that the event is a good opportunity for IMs and GMs norm hunters. The only disadvantage is the odd number of players, which means that one player will get a Bye. And round 1 player who got it was Elarabi AboBaker, and this is a little bit strange as, as it is more commonly known, the lowest rated one should get it in the first round. But we will leave this to the organizers.
(After checking the tournament swiss-manager file, it seems that the Libyan player couldn’t make it, and his name was withdrawn from the round 2 pairing)
So, the pairing AND the results of the first are as follows:
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | Result | Name | Rtg | ||
| 1 | GM | Adly Ahmed | 2605 | 1 – 0 | FM | Mohammad Samir | 2349 |
| 2 | FM | Njili Kamel | 2329 | ½ – ½ | GM | Al-Modiahki Mohamad | 2564 |
| 3 | GM | Salem A R Saleh | 2489 | 1 – 0 | FM | Ayyad Husain | 2206 |
| 4 | Al-Hageri Badr | 2130 | 0 – 1 | IM | Tissir Mohamed | 2454 | |
| 5 | IM | Khader Sami | 2416 | 1 – 0 | Yaaqoub Rashid | 2102 | |
| 6 | Daouda Sabar Ousmane | 2097 | 0 – 1 | IM | Al-Zendani Zendan | 2396 | |
| 7 | IM | Eid Fadi | 2381 | 1 – 0 | Tamra Attallah | 2090 | |
| 8 | Elarbi Abobker | 2273 | 0 | not paired |
The only score- surprise of this first round was the draw between Tunis FM Ksamel Njili and the Qatari GM Mohammad AlModiahki.
The other game surprise was the 13-moves game on the first board between the Egyptian GM Ahmad Adly (White) and the Syrian FM Mohammad Samir (Black):
(1) Adly,Ahmad (2605) – Samir,Mohammad (2349)
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.g3 c5 4.Bg2 cxd4 5.0–0 e6 6.Nxd4 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Nc3 h6 ?!
9.f4 !! exf4 10.gxf4 Qd7
11.f5!! Bxf5 12.Nxd5 Bg6 ?
13.Rxf6 1–0 Humm. I don’t want to be on the Black side.
The Lebanese highest rated player IM Fadi Eid , playing White, scored a nice win over the Palestenian Attallah Tamra:
(7) Eid,Fadi (2381) – Tamra,Attallah (2090)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 0–0 8.Bb3 a5 9.a3 d6 10.h3 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 Bd7 12.a4 Bc6 13.0–0 Nd7 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.Bc4 Rc8 16.b3 Re8 17.f4 Qb6+ 18.Kh1 Qc5 19.Qe1 e6 20.Rd1 d5 21.Bd3 dxe4 22.Nxe4 Bxe4 23.Bxe4 Rc7 24.c4 b6 25.Qc3+ Kg8 26.f5 Qe7 27.Qg3 Nc5 28.fxg6 hxg6
29.Bxg6!! fxg6 30.Qxg6+ Kh8 31.Qh5+ Kg8
32.Rd4 Rf8 33.Rg4+ Qg7 34.Rxg7+ Rxg7 35.Rxf8+ Kxf8 36.Qe5 Rb7 37.g4 Kf7 38.h4 Rd7 39.Qh5+ Ke7 40.Qg5+ Ke8 41.Qg6+ Ke7 42.h5 Rd1+ 43.Kh2 Nd7 44.Qg7+ Kd6 45.h6 Rd2+ 46.Kg3 Rd3+ 47.Kf4 e5+ 48.Kg5 Nc5 49.Qf8+ Kd7 50.Qf5+ Kd6
51.Qxd3+ 1–0 An Elegant finish.