By
Dewain Barber
November 28, 2014
Dubai is located in the United Arab Emirates. I had the pleasure of visiting this city on my way to and from India and Nepal. Although my stay in the Emirates was brief, I always look for a game of chess. This was the case when I visited the Dubai Mall with my wife, Susan. We had just finished a day trip to Abu Dhabi and were dropped off at the mall.
This mall is located at the bottom level of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at a height of 2,722 ft. After going to the 124th Floor of the skyscraper and looking out over the city we strolled in the mall looking for souvenirs before we headed back to the hotel.
Burj Khalifa
View from the Burj Khalifa
I passed a shop that had a large selection of carpets and noticed a chess board. I decided to investigate and asked one of the sales persons if someone in the shop played chess. He indicated that he played a little bit and so it was time to see if I could play chess in Dubai. He quickly produced a chess set and we set up the pieces.
Dubai Carpet Chess
As you can see from the photo we were surrounded by many carpets. I have never played chess in a carpet shop. The beauty of these carpets was a distraction. My opponent, Wadhah Mohammed Saeed was the Branch Sales Manager for the Persian Carpet House. As his experience was limited we talked about the ideas of chess from the opening, development, castling and tactics. Our game was brief because I had only a short time before we needed to head back to our hotel for the evening meal.