International Master (2008); Grandmaster (2009); Asian U14 Champion (2007); Arab U18 Champion (2007); Arab Champion (2008); Asian U16 Champion (2008); UAE Champion (2008, 2011 & 2102); Asian U18 Champion (2009); Arab Junior Champion (2010); Arab Elite Champion (2011)*; Asian Continental Blitz Champion (2015); Asian Continental Champion (2015).

Championships

<Youth> A.R. Saleh Salem first played in a FIDE-rated championship when he participated in the Arab U12 Championship in 2004. He seems to have placed =3rd at the Asian U12 Championship hosted by Singapore in 2004. (1) He was =1st (possibly the winner) of the Arab U16 Championship in 2006. (2) In 2007, he won the Arab U18 Championship and the Asian U14 Championship, and in 2008 he took out the Asian U16 Championship, a point clear of runner up Baskaran Adhiban. In 2009 he won the Asian U18 Championship that was staged in New Delhi (3) and was =5th in the World U18 Championship 2009 that was held in Turkey.

<Junior> He won the Arab Junior Championship in 2010 with 8/8 and came 5th in the World Junior Championship (2010), this event having been held in Poland. He was =3rd behind Srinath Narayan and Sahaj Grover in the Asian Junior Championship of 2013.

<National> He came second at the UAE National Championship in 2007 to Hassan Abdullah and went one better in 2008 when he won. In 2011 he won the national championship with the perfect score of 9/9. He also won in 2012, this time conceding a draw in the 9 game event.

<Regional and Continental> Salem won the Arab Championship in 2008, was second in that event in 2009 and played in his first Asian Continental Championship in 2010, scoring 4.5/9. In 2011 he won the Arab Elite Championship*, placing third behind Bassem Amin and Mohamad Al-Modiahki in the next iteration of that event in 2013, and =2nd in the 2015 version of the event. He was =2nd behind Bassem Amin in the Arab Championship of 2013, 2nd at the 2014 Arab Championship, third in the 2012 Asian Continental Championship (see next section below in "World") and sixth at the Asian Continental 2014 which was good enough to qualify him for the World Cup 2015. He won the Asian Continental in 2015.

<World> He qualified for the World Cup (2011) by winning the Western Asian Zonal 3.1 ahead of Ehsan Ghaem Maghami and Pouria Darini, but was defeated in the first round by Russian super-GM Dmitry Jakovenko. In 2012, he defeated tournament winner Parimarjan Negi in the last round to place outright 3rd in the Asian Continental Chess Championship (2012), qualifying for the World Cup (2013), where he lost to Dutch #1 and #1 World Junior Anish Giri in the 1st round, ending his participation in the Cup. He qualified for the World Cup (2015) via his result at the Asian Continental qualifier (see above), faring no better on this occasion as he lost to Wei Yi in the first round.

Tournaments

<2003-2009> A.R. Saleh Salem first played in FIDE-rated tournaments when he was ten years old in 2003, firstly in August 2003 in the 2nd Sharjah Open in the UAE, followed by the 2nd Sharjah Closed tournament the following month, these events being the basis of his initial rating (see below). 2006 saw the commencement of a few years of rapid almost uninterrupted rating rises, starting with strong, albeit unplaced, results at various tournaments in the UAE such as the President's Cup in 2006 and 2007, the UAE Open Championship, the 8th and 9th Dubai Opens in 2006 and 2007, the Asian Youth Championships, the Aeroflot Open B Group in 2007, the national and youth championships in 2007, the Abu Dhabi Masters in 2007, Aeroflot Open A2 in 2008 and other events. This period from early 2006 until late 2008 was a very productive development period for the budding grandmaster and saw his rating rise by nearly 500 points to close to 2500 in October 2008, soon after which he gained his GM title.

<2010-2015> He won the UAE President Cup 2010 with 8.5/9, 2.5 points clear of the field, and also won in this event in 2012 with 8/9, 1.5 points clear of the field. He wound up 2010 with clear second behind Mohammedat Al-Sayed at the Arab Tournament 2010 held in Jordan in December. He was =6th with 7/10 at the Tradewise Gibraltar (2012) and scored the same amount of points in Tradewise Gibraltar (2013) although that resulted in a lower placement. In 2013 he was outright second to Yu Yangyi in the men's individual chess section of the 4th Asian Indoor Games 2013 held in Incheon in Korea. In July 2013, he scored a strong 7/11 to place =8th at the powerful Biel Open Masters tournament. He was =7th at the even more powerful Qatar Masters (2014), scoring 6/9. He was =5th in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2015 - Challengers and =4th with 6/9 at the Aeroflot Open (2015)

Team Events (4)

Salem started playing in both the Arab League and the UAE League in 2004 when he was eleven years old. (5)

<National representative> Salem represented the UAE on reserve board for the U16 Olympiad in 2002. He also represented his country on top board for the 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 Olympiads, at the 2007 and 2011 Pan Arab Games and at the GCC** Team Championship in 2008 where he won team silver.

<Cities and Clubs> Salem played for the Sharjah Chess Club in the Arab lub Championships of 2006, 2007 and 2008, winning team silver and individual gold (board two) in 2007. He represented Sharjar on top board at the World Cities Team Championship (2012) and at the Asian Cities Championship in 2012, winning individual gold in the latter. (xx) He also played top board for the Al Ain club at the Asian Club Cup in 2014, again winning individual gold.

Matches

Salem played a best-of-six game match against Zaven Andriasian in Sharjah in January 2009 in what was designated as the Official Match UAE-Armenia. The first four games were drawn and Andriasian won the fifth. Trailing by a point in the final game, Salem won the final game and leveled the match for a drawn result in the standard games (3-3 from +1-1=4). It is not known if the result was decided in a rapid game tiebreaker. He played against Russian super-GM Denis Khismatullin in January 2014 in a match dubbed the UAE Chess Challenge, and was defeated 0.5-4.5.

Rapid/Blitz

Salem is also very effective in the faster form of the game, his best results including:

- winning the Dubai International Blitz Tournament in 2013 in the UAE;

- a rating enhancing (+60) 7.5/15 result at the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship 2013;

- 2nd to Samy Shoker at the Arab Rapid Chess Championship in the UAE in December 2013;

- 2nd to Bassem Amin at the Arab Blitz Chess Championship staged in the UAE in December 2013;

- another rating enhancing result (+86) at the World Blitz Championships 2014 in Dubai in 2014;

- 2nd behind Ivan Sokolov at the Sharjah International Blitz Championship in 2014 in Sharjah;

- winning the Al Ain Rapid 2014 in the UAE in December 2014;

- 2nd at the 2014 Arab Individual Blitz Chess Championship;

- winning the Allegiance to Zayed Rapid Chess Tournament in June 2015 in the UAE ahead of Sokolov and others;

- =3rd at the Sharjah Blitz International Championship 2015 in the UAE behind Gadir Guseinov and Ulvi Bajarani

- winning the Ramadan Blitz Teams Chess Tournament in July 2015 in the UAE with 9/9, half a point ahead of runner up Dimitri Komarov and a point ahead of outright third Davorin Kuljasevic and

- winning the Asian Continental Blitz Championship 2015.

Ratings History

Salem's initial rating was 2018 in January 2004 that was calculated on the basis of his first two FIDE rated tournaments in Sharjah in 2003. (see in "Tournaments" above). His highest rating to date was 2615 in July 2015.

Sources and references

(1) http://www.fide.com/FIDE/calendar/d...; (2) http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_...; (3) https://www.fide.com/index.php?opti...; (4) http://www.olimpbase.org/playersam/... except where otherwise footnoted; (5) http://ratings.fide.com/individual_...

* Arab Elite Championship consisted of one representative from each of fourteen Arab countries as shown here: http://ratings.fide.com/tournament_...; ** Gulf Cooperation Council

Wikipedia article: Salem Saleh (chess player)