Qatar National Chess Team Skips Papua New Guinea, Loses to Denmark at Chennai Chess Olympiad

Chennai (India), July 31 (QNA) - The Qatari national chess team began its participation in the 44th edition of the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2022, currently held in Chennai, India, by beating the Papua New Guinea national team with a score (4 - 0), and losing in the second confrontation to its counterpart, the Danish national team, with a score (3 and a half points versus half a point). The national team competed in the first and second rounds of the world Olympiad, in which 185 teams representing 180 countries participate, where they won against the national team of Papua New Guinea, ranked 168 in the world, with a score of 4 - 0, while losing the second confrontation to the national team of Denmark, ranked 27 in the world, with a score of 3 and a half points versus half a point. The Qatari team's mission, headed by President of the Qatar Chess Federation Mohammed Al Madhahka includes senior international Professor Hussein Aziz, federal professor Ghanem Al Sulaiti, national team player Yusuf Mohammed Al Mutawa, as well as emerging players Abdullah Al Hamid and Ryan Irfan, and international referee Yusuf Khalil. The best position achieved by the Qatari chess team was at the Olympiad held in Slovenia in 2002, by occupying the 50th place in the world, with the participation of 170 countries, and was able to outperform such prestigious teams as the American team. On the other hand, the International Chess Federation is holding the General Assembly on the sidelines of the Olympiad 2022 competitions, in addition to the elections that will determine a new board of directors for the next four years. Former Qatari national team star Jo Shen, International professor and former world champion, currently holds the position of financial secretary in the International Federation, after being elected at the last edition of the Olympiad, which took place in 2018 in Batumi, the Republic of Georgia, and the Russian Arkady Dvorkovich received the presidency of the federation, along with Syrian Vice-Presidents Bashar Qutli, Azerbaijani Maher Mammadov, Julio Granda Zuniga from Peru, and Togolese Anyonam Fumi Siwa, the current secretary general of the African Union. For his part, President of the Qatar Chess Federation Mohammed Al Madhahka confirmed that Qatar will run for election to the International Federation of the game to be held on the sidelines of the Olympics, pointing out that Qatari chess has made great gains through its membership in the International Federation, during the past four years, expressing great optimism in continuing to work on providing all means to build a generation and a promising base at the level of national teams, as well as providing all forms of support for Arab and Asian Chess. He added in a special statement to the Qatar news agency (QNA): "the Qatari presence in such large tournaments is very important, and the federation is keen to participate in order to raise the level of players, and gain great experiences with various international schools". He concluded his remarks to QNA by saying: "Our goal is to build good relations with various national federations, and we have succeeded in this during the past period, and we are also working to spread the culture of chess in Qatar, and horizontal expansion through the organization of local and international tournaments, in cooperation with partners". (QNA)