1/25/2012 – Diego Armando Maradona is arguably the greatest football player of all time. He played in four World Cups, and captained the Argentine team that won the title in 1986. Maradona has always been interested in chess, and was glad to be part of a remarkable Chess & Society campaign that is being staged in the United Arab Emirates. Big pictorial report by Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh.
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Alain Chess Campaign with Maradona
Report from Al Ain by Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh
The football legend Diego Armando Maradona lent his famous hand to put the
final touch in the closing ceremonies of the longest festival in the history
– to promote not football but the game of chess.
Maradona graced the festival's closing ceremony, playing the French (1...e6
against 1.e4)
The 40-day long festival was held in commemoration of the 40th anniversary
of the United Arab Emirates starting December 2nd, the UAE national day. Under
the slogan "We All Love Khalifa" in honor of the UAE President, the
Chess and Society Campaign was organized by the Al Ain Chess Club under the
patronage of Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, president of the Asian Chess
Federation.
Maradona, considered one of the best 50 Hall of Fame sports personalities
in history, honored the festivities, marking the agreement with the Yellow Empire
of Al Wasl Club as the best in UAE sports. The agreement with Maradona has generated
a lot of gains and attracted wide international coverage for the country in
the field of sports in traditional media and Internet sites.
Hisham Al Taher, Secretary General of the Asian Chess Federation and General
Manager of the Al Ain Chess Club, presented Maradona with the official T-shirt
featuring the image of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al
Nahyan, in an unforgettable moment.
Spanish language video of the soccer star playing a Living Chess game against
Anatoly Karpov.
There is more video of Maradona doing what he does best
at the end of this report
Famous players of the Al Ain Football Club, Omar Abdulrahman and Asamoah
Gyan
play an exhibition game in front of Alain Chess Club Players and officials
Cosmin Olaroiu, the coach of the Al Ain football team, beat one of club
members on
a lawn chess board. His Football Club is by far the most successful in the UAE!
Al Ain Chess Club members with Al Ain football players and officials
The Chess & Society Campaign was held in many stages across various sectors
of the community. The aim was to promote chess around the city and the country,
taking chess outside the closed halls. Targeting the entire community in different
places brought chess to new areas in the government and private sectors. In
order to attract new players and more spectators, the events were held in public
places to create a chess climate. The campaign management also conducted seminars
for fathers and housewives because because they are strategic partners in the
development of children. Around three thousand players and supporters took part
in the chess campaign.
A Chess Tournament in the middle of Al
Ain Mall, one of the biggest malls in Asia.
This tournament was won by Talal Al Halwani of Syria.
Another tournament at the Zafranaa Bazaar, a place for goods made in the
UAE.
This competition was won by Rocky Pabalan of the Philippines.
... and yet another Al Ain Museum, won by Mohammed Al Harmoodi of the UAE.
Visitors to the Al Ain Musuem also played a tournament won by Ail Amini from
Bahrain.
The campaign highlighted the benefits of chess for children's development of
their mental prowess, decision making, logical thinking, strategic planning
and memory exercise, ability to concentrate and handle time management and other
personal skills. Instructional brochures were given to spectators, and chess
sets and clocks for the winners.
A chess campaign in a city park, in which the members all signed a pledge...
... not to use use mobile phones or text while driving!
All the players in the above pictures are wearing T-shirts with a picture of
Diab Awana, the famous football player, who died last September in a car accident
in Abu Dhabi. According to reports, the accident happened while he was using
his phone.
There were humorous moments as well, like when half the participants at the
Bus Station Chess Tournament had to leave after the third round in order to
catch their bus. And in the Coffeehouse Tournament, which was won by was won
by Kamal Al Najar of Egypt, the players wanted to change World Chess Federation
(FIDE) rules to make chess more enjoyable by not using a clock, and more friendly
by requiring players to loudly announce the check. And they were against the
no smoking rule of FIDE and proposed to allow sheesha during the game. It was
a raucous gathering with spectators kibitzing tournament games.
At the Al Ain Airport Tournament among pilots and airport personnel, Duty
Manager
Ali Khalifah Al Khitbi was victorious and won the Cup.
There were also lectures on various themes of chess with over 500 attending
and playing in the shopping center. Engineer Ahmed Zarouni and International
Chess Arbiter Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh lectured about online play and demonstrated
how, how to utilize the iPhone and iPad for playing chess, and showed popular
chess playing software.
Your reporter Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh received a Cup and Prize from Asian
Chess
Federation President Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan (left) and Hisham
Al-Taher
Nader Adly, Chairman of the Alexandra Film Festival in Egypt, (second from
left above) lectured on chess and cinema. He compared the improvement in cinematography
to the improvements in chess and showed how the movie director is like the chess
player, both taking care of their pieces and cinema elements. He then showed
two movies with chess themes.
The Campaign also staged the Al Ain International Commercial Companies
Chess Championship...
... which was won by Mohammed Rasool Khoury and Sons group, which employs
the
Armenian national team, winner of the World Team Championship and two Chess
Olympiads.
The Gulf Paints company with IM Mehrshad Sharif, IM Imad Abdelnabi and FM
Shahin Koohestani (above) came second, with the same number of points as the
champions, whome they actually beat in their direct match: Sharif beat GM Akopian,
Imad beat Sarkisian, and Shahin beat GM Ni Hua!
Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa, President of Alain Chess Club and the Asian Chess
Federation (middle) at the closing ceremony of UAE Team Chess Championship
Diego Maradona – greatest footballer ever
Diego Armando Maradona is a retired Argentine football player, and current
manager of Al Wasl FC in Dubai. Experts consider him to be the greatest
football player of all time. He played in four FIFA World Cup tournaments,
including 1986, where he captained Argentina to win the title, with a
victory over West Germany in the final. In the quarterfinal round of that
tournament he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over England and
entered football history for two different reasons. The first goal was
via an unpenalized handball known as the "Hand of God", while
the second goal followed a 60 m (66 yd) dribble through six England players,
voted "The Goal of the Century".
Maradona scoring his famous "Hand of God" goal in 1986. There
are a ton of videos on it here.
The world's best player today, Lionel Messi, learnt from his Argentinian
predecessor, as we can see in this
video.
Above is the "Goal of the Century" with Spanish commentary
by the equally legendary Victor Hugo Morales. Again there are a large
number of videos on the goal here.
There is a story to be told about the 1986 World Championship. At the
time of the final between Argentina and West Germany Garry Kasparov, the
freshly crowned World Chess Champion, was visiting us in Hamburg. "Let's
go back to the hotel," he told his friend Frederic Friedel, "and
get ready to watch the final." – "Why don't we watch it
at my home," Fred suggested. "How big is your TV set?"
Garry asked, "and what about signal strength?" After making
sure that Fred had a larger set than the hotel, with satellite reception
and English language commentary, he agreed to watch it at his friend's
home. But unfortunatel he had not worked out all of the conditions
necessary for a perfect football final. Can you guess what he missed?
Only when the match started did he discover, to his horror, that Fred
was rooting for the wrong team – Argentine! That, and the fact that
the South Americans won the title, spoilt an otherwise perfect event for
the chess champion.
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