Katara Ramadan International Chess Open Kicks off on Tuesday

The Katara Ramadan International Open Championship for Rapid and Classic Chess, organized by the Qatar Chess Association (QCA), kicked off on Tuesday 5 April, in the multi-purpose hall in Katara, and will continue until 14 April.

The registration process witnessed a great turnout by international players, in addition to confirming the participation of a number of Qatari national team players.

The kick-off was on Tuesday with the preliminary qualifiers at 8:30 pm, in which the Rapid Chess system is adopted with the participation of 80 male and female players, who are divided into two equal groups, and the competitions are held based on the knockout system of two games, where each game is set at /10 minutes + 5 additional seconds for each move/, and in the case of a tie, a play-off match is resorted to, after which 20 players from each group qualify for the main round, which begins on the 7^th of this April, and is held according to the Classic Chess style of seven rounds according to the Swiss system (10 minutes + 30 additional seconds for each move), and all matches will take place starting from 9:00 pm.

Mr. Mohammed Al-Mudahka, President of the Qatar Chess Association, said that all arrangements for the launch of the competition have been completed, praising the efforts made by the Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) in organizing this tournament and supporting the activities of the Federation and the competitions it organizes, adding that he is looking forward to this type of partnership with national institutions to contribute to spreading the culture of chess in Qatar.

The President of the Qatar Chess Association then concluded: “It is not possible to develop the chess game and build a large base for it, without continuing to organize such tournaments. Over the past years, we have sought to devote these tournaments and put them on an annual agenda to contribute to refining the skills of the players of the national teams and providing them with important frictional opportunities, so that we have a strong presence in international tournaments.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Hussein Aziz, the tournament director, explained that the preliminary competitions, during which all participants will be divided into two groups, each of which includes 40 male and female players, with 20 of them qualifying for the main tournament that starts on the 7^th of this April, to be joined immediately by 20 participants who are members of Qatar Chess Association.

The tournament director confirmed that the prizes for this year are a total of 20,000 QAR, where awards this year include an award for the best female participant, an award for the best Qatari player, and the best promising player.