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The first day of the Turkmenistan Chess Championship among cadets under 8, 10 and 12 years old in Ashgabat produced a lot of surprises, during which medals in rapid chess were played out.

The hottest fight took place in the very competitive category of boys under 12 years old. As the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan commented, throughout the entire tournament distance of 9 rounds, about 10 very strong chess players went “neck and neck”, alternately taking the lead.

At different stages of the tournament, the first positions were taken by last year's champion in the same age category Rauf Yusupov (FIDE rating - 1418, Mary), champion under 10 years of last year and under 11 years of this year Alikhan Batyrov (1667, Mary), Abdulla Joraev from Turkmenabat, Ashgabat resident Takhir Iminov and some others.

The champion of the recent championship under 13, Ashgabat resident Ali Akhmedov, demonstrated high-quality play, but in three games, including against principal opponents, he missed out on victory due to time trouble.

As a result, Didar Baltaev from Turkmenabat unexpectedly emerged as the winner, who, although he scored the same number of points with Alikhan Batyrov (7.5 each), was higher in the table, since his additional Buchholz coefficient (i.e. the sum of points scored by his rivals) turned out to be half a point higher (49.5 versus 49).

The fate of third place was also decided by tiebreaker, since six players simultaneously scored 6.5 points. But additional coefficients turned out to be equal between Rauf Yusupov from Mary and Suleiman Bayramov from Turkmenabat, including the Buchholz coefficient, personal match, and the number of victories. And only in terms of the number of victories, Rauf ended up in black on the third step of the podium.

Unlike the boys, the girls under 12 years of age were very unexpectedly triumphantly won by Nurhan Babanazarova, who showed a 100% result - 9 out of

9. Considered favorites at the start of the tournament, last year's U10 and this year's U11 champion Nebakhat Muradova (FIDE rating - 1218, Turkmenabat) and last year's U10 champion Pervana Serdarova (1262, Ashgabat) were content with second and third places respectively with 7 and 6 points.

Another sensation awaited us in the group of boys under 10 years old. Last year's champions Maksat Avlyakuliev (Turkmenabat) and Omarbek Ismailov (Dashoguz) not only failed to repeat their success, but even ended up below the medal list - in 5th and 6th places, respectively. Nazar Narimanov from Turkmenabat became the champion with 8 points. In second and third places with 7 points (but again, according to additional coefficients) were, respectively, Baygeldy Bazarov from Mary and Rejep Tadzhibaev from Dashoguz.

Perhaps the fewest surprises occurred in the category of girls under 10 years old. This year's national champion under 11 years old, Aya Bayramova from Turkmenabat, won a confident victory. Second place went to nine-year-old Dunya Ruslanova (Turkmenabat), and third place went to Zalina Iminova (Ashgabat).

For boys under 8 years old, there was another rather unexpected triumph with a 100% result - Denis Prokhorov from Mary. Two brothers from Ashgabat, Charyhekim and Khalilmuhammet Charyevs, were content with second and third places with 7.5 and 7 points, respectively. Medalist of the 2023 Western Asian Championship Begli Annagylyjov remained only in 7th place with 6 points, which also became a sensation at the current championship.

Girls under 8 years old, Aylar Khemraeva from Mary and Enedzhan Charygeldyeva from Turkmenabat scored 7.5 points each, but according to additional coefficients, Aylar turned out to be better. Third place went to Gunesh Bayramova (also from Turkmenabat).

One thing is obvious - leadership positions in children's chess can change unexpectedly and within a very short time. Today, new “stars” and champions may already be toppled from the podiums of the winners of recent competitions.

But isn’t that what makes chess so interesting!?

On Tuesday, January 30, the classical chess championship starts, where the focus is no longer on the speed of thinking, but on its quality and understanding of the positional aspects of the game and deep calculations. And here we may have new favorites!

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Photo: orient.tm