Sharjah enter World Online School Chess Championship semi-finals

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club has qualified for the semi-finals of the World Online School Chess Tournament.

The World Online School Chess Tournament features online qualifiers between educational institutions from all around the world.

The event will culminate in an over-the-board final alongside the Expo 2020 Dubai.

The Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club players dominated the first and second stage of the qualifiers.

They were placed second in their group and they are once step away from booking berth in the final, which will take place during Expo 2020 Dubai in October.

This tournament is being considered one of the strongest global online competitions at the junior level with 300 teams from different parts of the world and nearly 2,700 players competing in the event.

The championship has reached its third stage after which only the best 30 teams reached the next level.

Now the teams are competing in five groups divided by six teams. The two best teams from each group will qualify for the final stage, making it to a total number of 10.

In addition, the organising committee of the tournament will select two wild-card teams.

The Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club is being represented by nine players including Hamad Bader Al Zarooni, Abdel Rahman Mohamed Al Taher, Abdullah Yahya Al Hammadi, Rashid Hussein Al Hammadi, Hamad Shuaib Al Kaff, Yahya Shuaib Al Kaff, Zayed Sultan Al Taher, Raji Sayel Abu Azizah and Saud Jaber Al Zarooni, and their training is being supervised by Moroccan International Master Mokliss El Adnani and General Coordinator GM Efstratios Grivas.

Omar Noaman Al Ali, Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Head of the Technical Staff, lauded the results achieved by the players, who reached the third stage of the championship to reserve a seat among the top 30 teams in the world.

“This remarkable result from our club’s players in the world of chess did not come by chance. Our club’s superb performance is achieved through perfect planning, administrative and technical efforts, as well as the players’ commitment to daily training (online) and instructions of their coaches,” he stressed.

Rajai Al Susi, Executive Manager of the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club, said: “Competing with along with top players will be a good learning curve for our players as this tournament brings together the top chess masters from Russia, China and India and other countries.”

To promote chess in schools and education, the Spanish Pavilion at the Expo Dubai 2020 has been organising this online chess tournament.

Sharjah chess club is the biggest chess club in the world, which hosts local, regional and top international tournaments around the year.

A powerful educational tool, chess encourages strategic thinking and problem solving, and is played by people of all ages and backgrounds from around the globe.