Oriented on making people closer

The 17th Asian Chess Championship among schoolchildren, held in Tashkent, ended on Thursday, July 20. On this day, young athletes competed in a blitz tournament with a time control of 3 minutes for the entire game and with the addition of 2 seconds for each move. This type of chess requires making quick, or even lightning-fast decisions during the game.

Our chess players have won three medals, and one of them is of the highest standard. Ashgabat's Amanmuhammet Hommadov, who competed in the category of boys under 17 (U17), scored 6.5 points out of 7 possible, rose to the top step of the podium and added a gold medal to Turkmenistan's piggy bank at this championship.

The other two medals were won by Gulmira Seyilhanova and Mahri Agamuradova from Turkmenabat. Gulmira, who was able to recover after a not very successful tournament with a classic time limit, took second place in the blitz in the category of girls under 15 (G15) with 5.5 points out of 7 possible.

And Myakhri, who had already won a silver medal in the "classic" the day before, today repeated her "silver" success with 5 points out of 7 possible.

In the category among boys under 11 years old (U11), the young talent from Mary Alihan Batyrov had a one hundred percent result after five games and led the tournament. However, Alihan played the last two games unsuccessfully and, having lost both games, he found himself in the final position for the second time in this championship on the offensive fourth line.

Our other young athlete from Dashoguz region Omarbek Ismailov, who competed in the category among boys under 9 years old (U9), was also unlucky. Before the last round, Omarbek was on the third line of the standings with 4.5 points out of 6 possible, but also, after losing the last game, he found himself behind the podium.

In the blitz tournament, unfortunately, Lala Shohradova did not live up to her hopes in the G17 category. Having already won two medals at this championship - a silver and a bronze, Lala, having scored 5 points out of 7 possible, also ended up on the fourth line of the standings.

According to the results of the blitz tournament, it is also possible to note the 4th place of Aya Bayramova in the G9 category (5 out of 7, Turkmenabat), the 6th place of Nebahat Muradova in the G11 category (4.5 out of 7, Turkmenabat) and the 6th place of Enejan Charygeldiyeva (4 out of 7, Ashgabat).

In total, Turkmen schoolchildren won seven medals at this championship in all three types of time control – one gold, four silver and two bronze. We can safely say that on the International Chess Day, celebrated every year on July 20, young chess players presented a worthy gift to our compatriots.

330 chess players from 17 countries of the Asian and Australian continents participated in the championship, including such chess powers as India, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia.

ORIENT news

Photo: provided by the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan