First Asian Club Cup in Al Ain
Report by Adrian Mikhalchishin and Georg Mohr,
with pictures by Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh
In the final days of 2008 the first edition of the Asian Club Cup finally started.
The Championship was organized under the patronage of Shaikh Hazza Bin Zayed
Al Nahyan, President of Abu Dhabi Sport Council. But this Event would not have
taken place without the efforts and energy (and money), provided by young Sheikh
Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Shakhboot Al Nahyan – President of Asian Chess
federation, which is based in Al Ain.

Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Shakhboot Al Nahyan
Al Ain is a big, typical Arabic city in United Arab Emirates (the “Garden
City” of the UAE), with a population of about 500,000, creating some sort
of triangle with the famous and better known Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Al Ain is
located in the desert, on the Oman border (the border was open till some years
ago, then closed for political reasons). “Al Ain city is aiming to establish
itself as a leading Arabic Sport City.” (Lakhdar Mazouz, FIDE pages),
with its fantastic facilities. The competition Arena, the Al Ain Cultural and
Sports Club in the centre of the town, is fantastic and provided excellent possibilities
for sport competitions and training for many sports, not just for chess.
In Europe we don’t know how Asian Chess is developing, except in China
and India. There are other federations which are becoming stronger and stronger:
Iran, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, as well as Arab countries, which held
their Championship in Sharjah, just before the Al Ain event (the winners were
the extremely talented players Salem Abdul Rahman from UAE and Mona Khaled from
Egypt). There are 22 Arab countries, with 18 registered Chess Federations. Such
big countries as Saudi Arabia and Oman have no registered chess activity!
In Western Asia UAE is a real paradise for chess. There are many chess clubs
and a lot of strong GMs working there as trainers (Victor Bologan, Alexey Kuzmin,
Elmar Magerramov, Edvins Kengis, Sarhan Guliev are just few of them). Plus in
the last years some prominent persons like Sheikh Sultan came to chess. The
Sheikh is supported by FIDE General Secretary Hisham Al Taher, Vice President
Casto Abundo from the Philippines and Mehrdad Pehlevanzadeh from Iran. The first
edition of the Cup gathered 30 teams (plus paid hotel and for some teams even
tickets by the Asian Chess Federation).

On the left: Hisham Al-Taher, the "right hand" of Sheikh Sultan
in the Asian
Chess Federation
“The UAE Leaders are keen to host Asian sporting events to provide opportunities
for Asian athletes to create friendship and cooperation ties between them,”
Shaikh Sultan said in his opening speech. “We, in the Al Ain Culture &
Chess Club, are happy and pleased to host players from 30 clubs, representing
24 Asian countries in our city in a competition which will reflect the progress
of the game in the continent. We in Asia are proud to have Anand, the World
Chess Champion, in addition to the excellent achievements of the continent’s
men and ladies in the international tournaments.”
Later, in the Press conference, he was asked about his future plans in chess
and about the idea, to run for FIDE President. “There is such an idea!
But, first we have ambitious plans in the Al Ain Club. We have more than 5000
children (!) as a result of our plans to widen our future prospects.”

Sheikh Sultan on the stage

The playing hall

The stage for the top boards
The arbiters
It was an extremely strong competition, with 27 Grandmasters and many other
International title holders. Al Ain decided to field two teams. The first of
them was put together from players around the world: Sergey Karjakin (2730)
and Zahar Efimenko (2680) from Ukraine, Gabriel Sargissian (2643) from Armenia,
Baadur Jobava (2664) from Georgia and Li Chao (2622) from China, with proud
captain Hisham Al-Taher: “We dedicate this victory to UAE and are delighted
with our performance. It was a team effort.”

Sergey Karjakin with Shaik Sultan and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
(right)

Captain Al-Taher and local guests following Karjakin’s game

The Champion team – back row: Sergey Karjakin, Hisham Al-Taher, Shaikh
Sultan, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Zahar Efimenko, Gabriel Sargissian; front row: Li
Chao, Baadur Jobava.
But even such a team wasn’t completely safe – a bitter fight till
to the end and just better Buchholz allowed Al Ain to be first ahead of the
young Chinese team Qi Yuan Club (Wang Hao, Zhou Jianchao, Zhou Weiqi, Wen Yang),
headed by the famous coach Li Zunian. Third was the very strong team Fajr Shams
Chess Club from Iran, with Mikhail Kobalia from Russia, Tigran L. Petrosjan
and Arman Pashikian from Armenia and the Irani players Ehsan Ghaem Maghami and
Morteza Mahjoob.
Final ranking after seven rounds
Rk. |
SNo |
Team |
+ |
= |
- |
TB1 |
TB2 |
TB3 |
1 |
1 |
Al Ain Chess Club A (UAE) |
5 |
2 |
0 |
12 |
168,5 |
59,0 |
2 |
3 |
Qi Yuan Club (CHN) |
6 |
0 |
1 |
12 |
137,5 |
54,0 |
3 |
2 |
Fajr Shams Chess Club (IRI) |
5 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
139,5 |
53,0 |
4 |
4 |
Tagaytay Chess Club (PHI) |
5 |
0 |
2 |
10 |
139,0 |
58,0 |
5 |
6 |
Vietnam Victory Club (VIE) |
4 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
122,5 |
56,0 |
6 |
11 |
Mon-Cad (MGL) |
4 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
108,0 |
50,0 |
7 |
13 |
Galkynysh (TKM) |
4 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
101,5 |
45,0 |
8 |
9 |
Al Ain Chess Club B (UAE) |
4 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
97,0 |
48,0 |
9 |
8 |
Club Intchess (SIN) |
4 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
95,0 |
53,0 |
10 |
7 |
Club India (IND) |
4 |
0 |
3 |
8 |
127,0 |
55,0 |
11 |
5 |
Chirchik Chess (UZB) |
4 |
0 |
3 |
8 |
102,5 |
60,0 |
12 |
16 |
Al Muhafaza (SYR) |
4 |
0 |
3 |
8 |
70,5 |
44,0 |
13 |
19 |
Al Shuolaa (YEM) |
4 |
0 |
3 |
8 |
61,5 |
44,0 |
14 |
10 |
Rah Ahan (IRI) |
3 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
87,0 |
52,0 |
15 |
18 |
Peshmerga (IRQ) |
3 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
69,5 |
49,0 |
16 |
20 |
Lahore Chess Club (PAK) |
3 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
60,0 |
40,0 |
17 |
17 |
Sport Electricity Club (IRQ) |
3 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
75,5 |
46,0 |
18 |
14 |
Yemen Chess Club (YEM) |
3 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
57,0 |
46,0 |
19 |
27 |
Brunei Chess Center (BRU) |
2 |
2 |
3 |
6 |
55,5 |
37,0 |
20 |
24 |
Tanmiyah Sports Club (LIB) |
3 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
54,0 |
40,0 |
21 |
21 |
Sri Lanka Chess Club (SRI) |
3 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
43,5 |
37,0 |
22 |
23 |
Nables (PLE) |
3 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
35,5 |
37,0 |
23 |
12 |
Sharjah Chess Club (UAE) |
2 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
69,0 |
44,0 |
24 |
22 |
Bahrain Union Club (BRN) |
2 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
44,5 |
40,0 |
25 |
15 |
Tajikistan Chess Club (TJK) |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
37,0 |
41,0 |
26 |
28 |
Afghanistan Chess Club (AFG) |
2 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
36,5 |
34,0 |
27 |
26 |
Elite Chess Club (NEP) |
1 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
39,5 |
37,0 |
28 |
25 |
Ilsan Chess Club (KOR) |
1 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
36,0 |
31,0 |
29 |
29 |
Al Shulah Club (SYR) |
1 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
34,5 |
34,0 |
30 |
30 |
Jerusalem Chess Club (PLE) |
0 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
25,0 |
31,0 |

The first board prize was won by another great Asian talent, Wesley So
GM Wesley So (15 years, 2627, one of the youngest GMs in the world) plays for
the Tagaytay Chess Club, Philippines. He collected 5.5 point out of seven (ahead
of Sergey Karjakin!), with a performance of 2706 points! Karjakin's performance
was 2697, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vietnam) performed at 2697.

There were also two splendid receptions for all participants and guests. The
first was given in the palace of Shaikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Shakhboot Al
Nahyan, and the second directly in the desert, added by an attractive show of
local swingers and moto racers.
The Authors
Adrian Mikhalchishin (54) is a International Grandmaster
(Ukraina, Slovenia) and well-known chess trainer (vice-president of the FIDE
Trainers Committee). He currently works as the coach for the Turkish Women
national team. A highly respected writer on chess he competes regularly at
the highest levels.
Georg Mohr (43), Mikhalchishin’s student, is an International
Grandmaster from Slovenia, now working as the coach of the highly successful
Slovenian national team. Mohr is a chess writer and translator – he
is editor of the Slovenian Chess magazine Šahovska Misel and translator
of many (mostly Garry Kasparov’s) books into the Slovenian language.
Links
– Second report on Al Ain with games to follow soon
–