Bahrain Chess Academy Heads to Abu Dhabi for Major International Festival

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com   

The Bahrain Chess Academy team has journeyed to the United Arab Emirates to compete in the 30th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival. This event will see over 2,000 players from 76 nations take part.

The Academy’s involvement forms part of the KHK SPORTS programme by the Khalid bin Hamad Sports Organisation, which supports a range of sports. This aligns with His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa’s “Gold Generation” scheme.

The festival boasts 27 different tournaments with a total prize pool of AED 450,000. It also marks the centenary of the International Chess Federation, founded in Paris in 1924.
 
Guiding the team is International Master Mohamed Tissir, an African champion and Olympic gold medallist in chess, who has been intensively preparing the players over the past two months.
 
The “Gold Generation” team includes Hamza Mohamed, Abdullah Makki, and Mariam Mohamed in the Under-12 category, as well as Marwan Al Binali, Mohamed Taqi, Fares Qun’eir, and Youssef Mohamed in the Under-20 category. Wafa Yaqoub from Bahrain’s women’s national team will compete in the Women’s category and is also set to join the Chess Olympiad in Budapest this September.
 
This participation is part of the Gold Generation’s extensive international schedule, which includes the Chess Olympiad in Hungary, the School Olympiad in Bahrain under His Majesty the King’s patronage, the Arab Youth Championship in Tunisia, and the Asian Amateur Chess Championship in Al Ain later this year.