23 years later, he did it again!
Antoine Kassis won the 22nd edition of the Lebanese Individual Championship in 1995.
He is considered one of the best players in Lebanon and represented his country honorably in many tournaments worldwide.
The 44th edition that was held in AUL-Cola between the 17th and 29th January 2019 marked his second triumph. With 9 points and a half out of 11 possible points, Antoine won the title half a point away from FM Faisal Khairallah.
The third place went to the Lebanese Army coach FM Ahmad Najjar with 8 points and a half.
Below is the final rank of all participating players:
| Rank | Title | Name | Rtg | FED | age | Pts | forfeit | Res. | SB | Rtg+/- |
| 1 | FM | Kassis Antoine | 2159 | LBN | 47 | 9½ | 2 | 0 | 43.25 | 32.2 |
| 2 | FM | Khairallah Faisal | 2274 | LBN | 44 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 41.50 | 4.3 |
| 3 | FM | Najjar Ahmad | 2210 | LBN | 53 | 8½ | 1 | 0 | 42.75 | 8.4 |
| 4 | FM | El Jawich Amro | 2260 | LBN | 24 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 32.75 | -19.4 |
| 5 | Moudallal Tarek | 2027 | LBN | 41 | 6½ | 2 | 0 | 23.75 | 6.2 | |
| 6 | CM | Abdulaziz Mahmoud | 2108 | LBN | 47 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 23.00 | -12.7 |
| 7 | Nassar Marc | 1889 | LBN | 23 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 16.00 | 27.6 | |
| 8 | Al Salman Mohamad | 1939 | LBN | 27 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 18.75 | 10.0 | |
| 9 | CM | Al Kaoury Mahdi | 2127 | LBN | 26 | 4½ | 4 | 0 | 15.00 | -35.0 |
| 10 | Kaloust Giorgio | 1822 | LBN | 17 | 3½ | 2 | 0 | 9.50 | 14.4 | |
| 11 | Houmsi Ghassan | 1852 | LBN | 49 | 1½ | 4 | 0 | 4.25 | -28.8 | |
| 12 | Asmar Elie | 2016 | LBN | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0 |
Note that the player Elie Asmar withdrew from the tournament at the last moment due to health problem, and Ghassan Homsi as shown in the number of forfeited games didnt show up in his last 3 games due to health problems too. Mahdi and Salman lost one game each failing to show up in time.
IM,FT Fadi Eid charmed the audience with his analysis of the ongoing games live in the analysis room that was 2 floors above for the convenience of the players. He was aided mainly by players who love chess such as Ralph Ghnatios, Mohammad Habash, and Tarraf Tarraf. Unfortunately, due to funding issues, games were only transmitted 5 times out of 11 rounds.
This was brought about with the help of IA Elie Khairallah, the head of the arbiter’s committee in the Lebanese Federation who lend the eboards to the organizing committee from the Amicale Club, and IM Jack Bedrosian who sacrificed his time and knowledge to allow any player worldwide to watch the games at the same instance they were happening.
General Hassan Jouni, the head of the Lebanese Army Team, had a big role in the success of the tournament in addition to Mr Habib Khalil, the tournament director. And finally, chief arbiter and co-organizer was myself, FA Jamal Shamieh.
Finally, a few remarks can be withdrawn from the tournament for later improvements:
- The transmission should have happened daily with, if possible, analysis room.
- Media coverage is essential, and sadly, no one talked about the battle of the best 11 beasts in Lebanon throughout the whole period.
- The selection method for the final stage needs to be revised and edited as agreed upon among 10 out of 11 competing players; let alone players who didn’t reach this stage.
- 16 out of 66 games didn’t occur because of absence.
