C/o Villa
Babushka, Sir A Freemantle Street, San Pawl Ta Targa NXR06, Malta
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
PRESS
RELEASE
The Mediterranean Chess
Association was formed in November 2002 during the Bled Olympiad with the primary
objectives being :
(a) To
safeguard and further the interest of chess within the Mediterranean region, as
well as the interests of its members;
(b) To foster
a positive framework of friendship and collaboration and generate peaceful
relationships within the Mediterranean region;
(c) To provide
an organisation for the promotion and participation of chess in all related
existing and future activities, competitions and seminars within the
Mediterranean region;
During the month of March 2003,
some key events were generously organised by Libya to push forward this
positive initiative. Firstly, there were two junior tournaments, one for Boys
U-20 and another one for Girls U-20. A total of 24 junior players participated
in these first tournaments with the Boys tournament being strongly contested by
three International Masters and one Fide Master. The final winner was IM
Dimitrios Mastrovasilis from Greece with a score of 8.5/9. In the girls
tournament, woman Fide Master Ana Srebrnic from Slovenia dominated although the
result was left to the penultimate round when in the important encounter
between Srebrnic and Amina Mezioud from Algeria, Srebrnic came out victorious.
Additionally, the 1st
MCA General Assembly was held in Tripoli on the 27th of March 2003
and during this Assembly a new council of five members were elected as follows
:
·
President
– H.E. Eng. Mohammad Al Gathafi (Libya)
·
Deputy
President – Eng. Ali Nihat Yazici (Turkey)
·
Vice
President – Dr. Ammar Houry (Lebanon)
·
Treasurer
– Dr. Sakis Kouvatsos (Greece)
·
General
Secretary – Mr Geoffrey D Borg (Malta)
Despite the critical events
happening today in the Middle East the MCA still had the full support of the
majority of the Federations in the Mediterranean region. The next events
targeted are the Men and Women Championships which will be held in Beirut,
Lebanon between the 25th of September 2003 and 6th
October 2003. More details will be shortly available on the website : http://www.tsf.org.tr/mca/
Yours sincerely,
Ali Nihat Yazici Geoffrey
D. Borg
Deputy President General Secretary
baskan@tsf.org.tr gdb@waldonet.net.mt