Arabian Karpov Cup: Rouda Essa Al Sarkal stuns the field

A surprise winner

The Arabian Karpov Cup, as part of the 1^st Jeddah International Youth Festival, successfully fulfilled its mission: to present a platform for young players from the Arab and African regions to play in an international tournament, so as to increase their rating or simply to gain experience. Young chess hopefuls from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Yemen and of course, the host country, Saudi Arabia, came to Jeddah for nine eventful days.

It is viewed as a rarity and a surprise when, in an open tournament, a woman grabs the gold from her male colleagues.

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Such was the case at the Jeddah's Karpov Cup, where a 15-year-old Emirati Woman Candidate Master was crowned as the winner. Rouda Essa Al Sarkal is known as a 'golden star' in the Emirates. Her achievements, since a very young age, include: U-8 World Chess Champion for girls, gold medal in the Asian Schools Championship U-6, bronze medal in the Asian Individual Championship for Girls U-8, and many victories in local, regional and international competitions.

Another Emirati player, Humaidan Mohamed Alzaabi, won silver. They both scored 7½/9 points, but Rouda had a better tie-break.

Husain Abdulah Al Khoori, the president of the Abu Dhabi Chess Club, flanked by the Arabian Karpov Cup's winners, Rouda Essa and Humaidan Mohamed

The United Arab Emirates has been popularising chess for quite some time, with impressive chess clubs and many famous international tournaments. Lately, their players have been showing increasingly good results and the Karpov Cup is further proof of that. Adam Tukhaev, a Ukrainian grandmaster, a coach of the Emirati players, has all reasons to be proud.

Adam Tukhaev with The Karpov Cup's winner

Spanish player Alvaro Bravo De La Vega took home the bronze

Best women: Cristina Sureda Gonzalez from Spain (1^st), WCM Eman Sawan from Palestine (2^nd), Laura Toquero Gracia from Spain (3^rd)

A large group of Spanish players were given the opportunity to play in Jeddah courtesy of the Spanish Chess Federation and its PR, Patricia Claros Aguilar.

Spaniards at the Jeddah Youth Festival: on the far right, Patricia Claros Aguilar, on the far left, Federico Marin, a journalist for 'El Mundo' and author of a very active blog on chess and poker, Damas y Reyes

Participants and fathers from Oman

Saudi players and their coaches — on the far left, Khalid Al Mutlaq, owner of one of the oldest and most successful chess clubs in Saudi Arabia that operates in the Dammam region

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Abdourahmane Chbihi, the only player from Morocco, achieved a great result, 5/9

Friends: (from left) GM Mohamed Haddouche from Algeria, Saud Alrahily from Saudi Arabia and IM Basheer Alqudaimi from Yemen

Yemeni IM Basheer Alqudaimi's son, Abdullah Al-Qudaimi, best U-14

President of the Algerian Chess Federation, Azzedine Brahim Djelloul, and the most prominent Algerian player, GM Mohamed Haddouche

Algerian GM Haddouche is employed as a trainer by the Saudi Chess Federation. He is a recipient of the prestigious Saudi Games prize of 250,000 riyals (approx. 65,000 euro). Saudi Games and the high prize fund shows the Saudi Arabian commitment to the development of sports in the Kingdom.

During the Jedda Youth Festival, there was also an open blitz tournament that was won by Mohamed Haddouche. IM Basheer Alqudaimi (Yemen) and Federico Marin (Spain) were placed second and third respectively.

GM Mohamed Haddouche, the blitz tournament winner, receives the cup from the organizer/sponsor, Chokri Saidi

The Tournament Director, IA Laurent Freyd, and the Logistics Manager, Maxim Yugov, exchange notes

Arbiters, Eman, Adnan and Maleeha talking about a curious incident

Hashem Elnami, the tournament's photographer and graphics designer

Royal princes, Faisal and Khalid Al Saud bin Talal, received recognition plaques for their participation

WCM Eman Sawan

WCM Eman Sawan won the second-best woman prize, but she was not happy with her result. Neither was her mother, Rasha, who thought that her daughter had a much higher potential. The sponsor and organizer, Chokri Saidi, invited them both to the tournament on paid expenses. They are Palestinians but live in Jordan. Eman plays for the Palestinian Chess Federation. She is a Woman Candidate Master and has three FM norms. She studies chess ten hours a day, alone, as they cannot afford a coach. But she has already won two Arab championships for U-14 and U-16 and represented Palestine at the Olympiad. Rasha, almost through tears, confessed to me her concerns about her daughter's wasted potential, which apart from the obvious difficulties of living in a foreign country might also have to do with Eman's oversensitive nature.

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The relationship between a parent and a talented child carries a special psychological conflict, and it is very much present in the chess world. At the tournament, there was a psychoanalyst at hand to help parents and players with consultations and advice. Abdessalem Sami, an eclectic personality, gave several lectures on psychology subjects like stress management and concentration problems. He also conducted short relaxation, meditation and motivational sessions for all players before the start of the games.

Abdessalem Sami

Many players were accompanied by their whole family, parents, grandparents and siblings.

Omar Khalil (top-right corner) delighted his family by winning the U-8 category

Ahmed Gamal El Deen Yaseen from Egypt together with his family

The true star of the Karpov Cup was a 4-year-old Kashmiri girl, Fatima Hoor.

Fatima Hoor and her family

Her father, Bilal, is convinced that Fatima is made for chess, and he makes everything possible to take the girl to as many tournaments as possible. Watching her at the board, it is apparent that, like any 4-year-old, the girl struggles, fidgets, makes illegal moves, returns the pieces after being warned, but, in a field of much older players, she also managed to win a game, which may just prove his father right. Bilal and his family moved to Bahrain because of his work prospects, but he keeps close ties with their native Kashmir, in India. Indian and Kashmiri dailies picked up the story: The Bridge and Kashmir Sports Watch published articles about young Fatima.

A masterclass in progress

French GM Romain Edouard provided masterclasses and also a simultaneous exhibition in a beautiful setting of Jeddah's history museum, Tayebat.

A simultaneous display at the Tayebat Museum

A late evening visit to the Tayebat Museum brought a nice relaxing moment from the intensive chess playing schedule.

The museum, a large multi-room complex of traditional architectural design, with wood-carved bay windows and facades with intricate, ornate coral masonry, provides a history lesson about the 2500-year-old Jeddah and its rich Islamic heritage.

A night shot of a small corner of the Tayebat Museum

A memento group photo in front of the entrance to the Tayebat Museum

It was a pleasure to be part of this wonderful event as an official reporter for ChessBase: Diana Mihajlova and organizer/sponsor Chokri Saidi

Final standings

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Links

• Official website
• Jeddah International Youth Chess Festival: Impeccable
• Chess on the ‘island of dreams’
• Tamerlane Chess revived!