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President of the Bahrain Mind Sports Association (BMSA), Hassan bin Eid Bu Khamas, was selected as the first president of the Gulf Chess Association (GCA). This event, which was held last week in Al-Ain emirate in the UAE, is an initiative by the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) and on the sidelines of the ACF’s meetings held in Abu Dhabi under the chairmanship of Shaikh Sultan bin Khalifa bin Shakhboot Al Nahyan.
Representatives from the GCC associations were present at the declaration event of the GCA with Bahrain’s Hassan Bu Khamas as president and the membership of Abdulaziz Al-Khouri of UAE, Layla Al-Najjar of the Sultanate of Oman, Othman Al-Qasabi of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Adel Al-Amiri of Kuwait and Mohammed Al Mudhahki of Qatar. The Kingdom of Bahrain will the GCA’s first premises for the first four years while the main system of the GCA has been agreed on during the founding meeting.
Bu Khamas expressed his thanks and appreciation to the President and members of the ACF and their GCC counterparts for the confidence laid in him by choosing him as a president of the first gulf chess association stressing that he considers this task as a commission and is not an honor. This, he said, would push him to work on activating the role of this association to reach the desired goals. On top of these goals, he added, comes improving the game in the region and pave the way for region’s chess enthusiasts to highlight their talents on the continental and international levels.
Bu Khamas expressed his admiration of the ACF’s president, Shaikh Sultan bin Khalifa bin Shakhboot Al Nahyan’s ideas that aim to consolidate ties of cooperation, coordination and integration among gulf associations and the ACF for the advancement of the game in a way that fits ambitious of their members who demonstrated global excellence in the game in the past years. He also praised the efforts of the ACF’s Secretary-General, Hisham Al-Tahir, for adopting the idea of establishing the GCA