Salem Saleh interview: The UAE Grandmaster turned Dubai police officer’s rise in world chess

Grandmaster Salem Saleh must be the world’s strongest chess player among policemen. He was once ranked 44th in the world. The 33-year-old from the UAE is the best-ever player produced by the Arabian Peninsula and is currently the World No. 86. Excerpts from an interview Saleh gave The Hindu:

Do you still work with the police?

Yes, I still have my job, but I have been on sports leave for a long time.

Earlier, you used to work even while playing, right?

Yes, that was the case. Then the government decided to bet on me that I can maybe improve and become a better player.

And you were touching 2700 at that time.

Yes, exactly. I was almost 2700.

ALSO READ | It’s not very nice to change the country you represent: WGM Sara Khadem on leaving Iran for Spain

So before the government sanctioned your leave, what was your work in the police like?

I worked with the Dubai Police. I was in the quality control department. And I worked during the pandemic, too. So my job was to make sure that we put some safety rules and to check that people are following the protocols. Things like social distance and all kinds of sanitising.

While you were doing all that, were many people aware that you were one of the world’s top chess players?

In my department, people knew. The police have something like 23,000 employees, I don’t think everybody knows about me. And very few outside the police know me, because chess is not very popular.

Is it because of lack of support?

Not actually. Now I think the situation in the UAE, when it comes to the support, is probably the best ever. We have good clubs, we have good coaches, and we have tournaments in the UAE.

How did this change happen?

I think it was some big tournaments, like the World Championship, that really helped.

The World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi in Dubai in 2021…

Yes. And the UAE has also organised other major events like the World Rapid and Blitz Championships. Then, of course, there is the Sharjah tournament. So all these tournaments have helped chess gain a lot of interest, compared to earlier times. The Fujairah Masters has also become a big event. Yes, the organisers are doing a good job in the UAE, though there is always room for improvement. Hopefully, this will continue.

Unyielding: Saleh admires Gukesh’s fighting spirit. ‘Even before the famous bang on the table [by Carlsen], he was just defending,’ Saleh says. ‘Some people would just lose. He defends and fights till the end.’ 
| Photo Credit:
PTI

Are you seeing talented kids emerging from the UAE?

From Sharjah, there is one kid who I think is good. His name is Rashid Alhammadi. He plays well, but the future you will never know. We had some good players in the past too, like Saeed Ahmed Saeed. He had a rating of 2435, and he was close to becoming a Grandmaster. But he stopped very early, at the age of 18. I think he has beaten Viswanathan Anand.

How was the situation in the UAE when you started out?

There were not many good tournaments back then, but I was sent by the [Sharjah Chess] Club and by the federation to Europe. That was the only way to get your norms. Now more people are showing interest in chess, especially after the pandemic. I saw many who wanted to learn the game. Even some of my friends who knew that I was a chess player since childhood learned chess during the pandemic. They started talking about chess.

Once I was in a chess library, and somebody asked me, ‘Can we play a game?’ I thought he could be a weak player, but when I started the game, I found this guy was playing some theory. He played Caro-Kann Defence. Afterwards, I asked him, ‘How do you know this? And did you go to a club?’ And he said, ‘No.’ He told me that during the pandemic, he became interested in chess and he learnt the game by following some YouTube channels. So he learnt it all himself. And he was a decent player.

How did you get interested in chess?

It was because of my brothers. They were the UAE champions, one had a peak rating of 2300 Elo points and the other was 2200.

When did you become serious about chess?

When I started winning tournaments. My brothers took me to the Sharjah Chess Club. Sharjah was always the best. Sometimes even the whole national team was from the Sharjah Chess Club.

In 2015, you won the Asian Championship in your home country, at Al Ain.

It is one of my biggest wins. And it was a very strong tournament, too. I remember beating this Chinese player; I came up with a combination [of tactical moves], and that somehow changed my mood; there was a lot of praise from my coaches. Then I won the next few games back-to-back.

ALSO READ | At four, I watched Kosteniuk become World champion; I felt I needed that crown: Assaubayeva

Have you always been a tactical player, from the time you were a kid?

Yes, I think it is a cultural thing. When I grew up, like, the coaches were all about tactics, all about combinations. And this, in their eyes, is the beauty of chess.

There were a lot of strong players at that Asian Championship, weren’t there? Vidit Gujrathi, S.P. Sethuraman, Surya Shekhar Ganguly…

Yes, and there was also Vishnu Prasanna, the coach of the future World champion D. Gukesh. And I had beaten him.

Your thoughts on Gukesh winning the World title?

I was surprised, actually. I had played against him in Biel [in 2022]. I had also played in that close tournament against Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. I had equal results with everyone. Then, not long after that, Gukesh won the World Championship, which was a surprise for me. It was clear to me that he was strong when I played with him, but I did not think that he was going to be the World champion [two years later].

I had beaten him in classical chess, and it was painful for him, as he had just crossed the 2700 rating for the first time. So I beat him, and he went back. But then he won eight games in a row at the Chess Olympiad. But I didn’t expect him to be the World champion so soon. I like his fighting spirit. He defends and fights till the end. Even before the famous bang on the table [by Carlsen], he was just defending. Some people would just lose. It seems to me that he is always trying to learn.