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On January 27, the Turkmen Junior under-20 Chess Championship ended in Ashgabat, where tournament favorites Amanmuhammet Hommadov and Lala Shohradova confirmed their leadership positions.

For the first time, the junior championship was held in all three currently popular chess formats at once, i.e. classical chess (with full time control), rapid (rapid chess) and blitz (lightning chess).

On the first game day of the championship, on January 22, the participants competed in rapid, where the current Asian champion in blitz among schoolchildren, Amanmuhammet Hommadov, did not give his rivals a chance, scoring 9 points out of 9 possible.

The second place was taken by a peer and fellow countryman of Hommadov, 17-year-old Ashgabat resident Ahmet Gubatayev with 7.5 points, and 15-year-old student from Lebap Ilhan Charyev, who scored 6.5 points, rounded out the top three winners.

Lala Shohradova, a student of the 11th grade from Danevsky etrap, turned out to be the best among the rapid girls, scoring 8 points out of 9. schoolgirls Meryem Agajanova, Ashgabat, and Gulmira Seyilhanova, Turkmenabat, were one point behind Lala. According to additional indicators, Meriem took the second place.

In the tournament among young men with classical time control, which took place from January 23 to 27, a stubborn struggle was fought between three players - Amanmuhammet Hommadov, Ahmet Gubatayev and a student of the Turkmen State Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering Vepaly Halyyazov.

Having drawn with the main competitors and won all the other games, Amanmuhammet eventually scored 8 points out of 9 and repeated his success at the rapid tournament. Ahmet and Vepaly, who were half a point behind the leader, were on the second and third lines, but according to additional indicators, Ahmet surpassed his counterpart.

In the girls' classic tournament, as expected, the main favorites - the FIDE women's master Lala Shohradova, the 2023 junior champion Meryem Agajanova and the candidate for the FIDE women's master Leyla Shohradova were in the lead throughout the tournament.

As a result, Lala, who, by the way, is the current national champion among women, became the champion among juniors with 7.5 points out of 9 possible. Meryem, having won her last game, took second place with 7 points. And, for Leyla, a draw in the last round would have provided a bronze medal, but she made a "misfire" and lost to a 13-year-old schoolgirl from Turkmenabat, Jahan Rejepova, who became the bronze medalist.

On the last game day of the championship, January 27, Lala scored a hat trick by winning the girls' blitz tournament. Having scored 7 points each, her sister Leyla Shohradova and 15-year-old Ashgabat schoolgirl Mahrijemal Gurbangeldiyeva took second and third place.

And in the tournament among young men, again, a stubborn struggle was unleashed between Ahmet Gubatayev and Amanmuhammet Hommadov, who scored 8.5 points each and broke away from the nearest pursuers by one and a half points. According to additional indicators, Ahmet, after all, won the gold medal. The third place was taken by Ilkhan Charyev, who has already become known as the "master of fast chess".

In total, about 100 athletes took part in the tournament. The winners of the championship received the right to participate in the World and Asian Championships among boys and girls under 20, the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan noted. The tournament data is available at the link

If we talk about the team competition, then Ashgabat and Lebap obviously dominated:

• Ashgabat: 3 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze

• Lebap: 3 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze

The series of chess competitions will now continue on Monday, January 29, at the capital's chess and draughts school, where the championship of Turkmenistan among the so-called cadets – children aged 6 to 12 years - starts. They will fight for the right to represent their country at the world and continental championships and cups, which this year will be held in Albania, Georgia and Kazakhstan.

ORIENT news

Photo: SHFT and FIDE