Good turnout for second Zubair U-16 chess championship

The second edition of the Zubair International U-16 Classic Chess Championship witnessed a great turnout from participants across all nationalities. This was after the opening of registration that took place recently for this tournament, which will run from July 11 to 14. The number of participants has reached more than 50 participants so far; the registration is still open until July 10.

This tournament stems from the framework of The Zubair Corporation’s adoption of the activities of the Oman Chess Committee. This is in order to encourage talented youths, develop them and enhance their chess abilities, through their interaction and participation in various local and external competitions. In addition, it motivates and supports them to do more through participation in such competitions. The tournament has been approved and implemented virtually via the lichess.org website, taking into account the prevailing health conditions.

Players wishing to participate in the tournament must have an account on the lichess.org website, provided that all final stage players are monitored via ‘Zoom’. Those wishing to participate must register via the link: https://forms.gle/McGTAcr5zc S7AqEL8. The tournament’s system follows the regulations and laws of the International Chess Federation for remote Internet tournaments. Each players’ pairing will be merged through the Swiss Manager Programme.

Nine rounds will be played according to the Swiss system, giving each player five minutes with the addition of two seconds after each move in the qualifying stage. The top 40 players will qualify for the finals.

Hilal al Siyabi, chief corporate services officer at the Zubair Corporation said, “We are extremely pleased with the high turnout of participants in the second edition of the tournament, which is a positive indication of the wide popularity of chess.”