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At the Rapid World Chess Championship, which ended on Thursday, June 8, in the Georgian city of Batumi, a schoolgirl from the Lebap region, Leyla Shohradova, finished in third place in the category of girls under 16. Having the title of a candidate for the FIDE master among women, Leila scored 8 points out of 11 possible, only a point behind the winner Alexandra Shvedova (Russia) and half a point behind the silver medalist Ksenia Norman (Belarus).

Seeded number 12 at the tournament with a rating of 1440, Leila suffered two defeats at the start of the tournament (including from second-seeded Xenia Norman, 1989), but still found the strength to overcome the initial excitement and demonstrated a real fighting spirit, earning 8 points in the next 9 games, including a victory over the most champion, with a rating of 2005. Such a profitable result allowed Leila to raise her rating in Rapid by 170 points at once.

In total, 12 of the country's best chess players (6 girls and 6 boys) in the age categories from 8 to 18 years came from Turkmenistan to the tournament. In other categories, it should be noted the 7th place of Ashgabat Amanmuhammet Hommadov (2244), who in the under-18 category was in the leading group during the main part of the tournament and even drew with the ranking leader grandmaster Volodar Murzin (2554), but on the last day of the competition was able to score only half a point in four games. Apparently, the excitement of the decisive rounds affected, because this is Amanmuhammet’s debut at the international level.

The eighth place of Lala Shohradova (Leyla's older sister) in the category of girls under 18 should rather be described as a failure, given Lala's extensive experience of performing at the international level and the expectations associated with it.

It should also be noted the worthy result of Mary Alihan Batyrov – 14th place out of 68 participants with 7 points out of 11 in the category of boys under 10 years.

It was the first of two tournaments in Batumi, which was held with the Rapid time control regulations, i.e. each player was allocated 15 minutes with the addition of 10 seconds for each turn.

The overwhelming majority of the Turkmen participants finished the tournament at the top of the standings and showed a very high-quality game in segments. Considering that for many of our young chess players this is the first experience of performing at an international competition, the excitement was sometimes difficult to overcome.

But Leyla's success instilled confidence in the whole team, and a more stable and elated psychological state of the athletes allows us to hope for better results in the blitz competitions that will be held on June 10 and 11. Recall that the "blitz" regulation assumes that each player is allocated 3 minutes with the addition of 2 seconds for each turn.

In total, about 500 young chess players from 35 countries gathered for the World Championship.

Experienced specialists - Honored Coach of Turkmenistan Serdar Annaberdyev and team leader Sona Jumagulyeva prepare the team during the tournament.

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Photo: provided by the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan