by Musa Binthaily
The Saudi Arabian national chess tournament was held in Riyadh between June 28th and July 2nd where more than 300 players have participated, this unique tournament has also had a women section for the first time with the total prize sum divided equally at 125000 SR 25 female players competed solidly for the title as Dalia Alsimairi ended up first.
In the men’s section, the tournament started with seven big names in competition, including the highest rated players in the kingdom, Ahmed Alghamdi ,Abdulrahman Masrahi, Ahmed Abu Kannan, Abdallah Almutairi and Ahmed Althubaiti. The tournament saw a fierce competition at the last three rounds where a lot of tables were turned, but in the end, both Alghalmdi and Masrahi have achieved 8/9 points with the tie break favouring Masrahi to be the winner.
This tournament’s first 10 places gave the opportunity to the selection of the team participating in the coming chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia in September this year.