Mr. Hamid Kadhi, one of the distinguished chess players of Yemen, has been hired by the Qatari Union for Chess as a coach for the Qatari youth and junior chess players. Last week, Mr. Kadhi left the country for Doha, Qatar, to start his new assignment. Before he left, he told the Yemen Times that he feels quite excited at the opportunity to try his potentials in the field of coaching outside Yemen, adding that this new experience will be a real test for his skills in the game which he has acquired over many years of hard practice and serious dedication. He pointed out that he has chosen Qatar because of the high level of their performance in chess, and the popularity of the chess game among the young people in Qatar. He referred to the improvement in the chess local competitions which have been achieved by a group of talented young players. He expressed his hope that the Ministry of Youth and Sports, along with the Chess Union should pay every possible attention to the distinguished players. When asked whether he could represent Yemen in any international chess tournament, Mr. Hamid Kadhi said " My new job in Qatar does not prevent me from representing my country in the international chess events. In fact, I wish I could have got the same opportunity in Yemen and coach local players, but the current situation of the game here is not very encouraging." 
  
 

Mr. Mujahid Saraha, Secretary of the Yemeni Wrestling Union has said that the Union has okayed the participation of four wrestlers of different weights to represent Yemen in the upcoming world wrestling championship, which will be held in Athens, Greece, from the 23-26/9/1999. Countries from all over the world will participate in the wrestling championships. Mr. Saraha pointed out that the Yemeni Olympic Commission has agreed to pay for the expenses of one participant and the team's coach, while the Ministry of Youth and Sport will cover the expenses of the three others. The Yemeni team will fly to Athens from Amman, Jordan, immediately after taking part in the Arab Ninth Sport Round, which has been named after the late monarch of Jordan, King Hussein. 
Recently, the Wrestling Union has been preparing to set up an outside training camp in Iraq for the Arab Tournaments in Jordan and later for the World Championship in Greece. Among the Yemeni wrestlers expected to do well in the tournament is the Yemeni champ, Mr. Abdullah Al-Ezani, holder of a silver medal in the Arab Tournaments in Lebanon held in 1997. 

A preliminary basketball tournament between four teams was held from the 12th through the 14th of July, 1999. The teams which participated were Zuhra Sana'a, Sha'ab Ibb, Tilal Taiz, and Ahli Aden. Each team played against all of the other teams in the tournament once. The matches were well played, although Ahli dominated all of its games, winning every game by a margin of at least fifteen points, and were declared the champion of the tournament after defeating Tilal. Tilal was second, losing only to Ahli, followed by Zuhra and Sha'ab. This was a minor tournament, meant as preparation for the official tournament due to start in two weeks, but it was well organized and officiated. Basketball is a sport that is still rather new to Yemen, and the sport is still not played very widely, but it is now growing rapidly, and the level of play has risen significantly in recent years. Many of the players on all of the teams were new to the league, and most of these had never played in any official games before, so these games, played by official international rules, were excellent preparation for them. One can only hope that the official tournament will be run as well. 

Jeremy Cox, 
Yemen Times 
  

In all the levels of the tournament Al-Ahli Sanaa has proven to be the best team, and will stand alone at the top in the excellent tournament of football this year. Last Saturday, Al-Ahli defeated Shaab Al-Mokala 3/2 in an exciting, strong and tense match. 
With this win, Ahli-Sanaa leads the teams of the tournament with 65 points. No one else can reach that level in the games remaining Hence, Ahli-Sanaa becomes the champion of the tournament before the tournament has even come to an end. The other teams are now competing for the second and third places as they have lost all of their hopes for the first spot. 
The results of the excellent tournament of this year 1999 so far are as indicated in the table on the right: 

The following is the schedule of the dates and places of the matches to be played in the last week of the tournament: 

Sunday 18-7-99 
Shaab Ibb vs. Wahda Sanaa (Ibb) 
Zuhra vs. Hilal of Hodeidah (Hodeidah) 
Tilal vs. Saqr (Aden) 
Taleha vs. Wahda Aden (Taiz) 
Tuesday 20-7-99 
Majd vs. Shaab of Mukallah (Sanaa) 
Wednesday 21-7-99 
Wahda of Aden vs. Ittihad of Ibb (Aden) 
Thursday 22-7-99 
Wahda of Sanaa vs. Shullah of Aden (Sanaa) 
Shaab of Ibb vs. Ahli of Sanaa (Ibb) 
Saqr of Taiz vs. Hassan of Abyan (Taiz) 
Tilal vs. Hilal of Hodeidah (Aden) 
Zuhra vs. Shullah (Sanaa)