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At the 45th World Chess Olympiad, which concluded today in Budapest, Hungary, both the men's and women's national teams were winners in their repestive categories. The men scored 15 points out of a possible 22 to win in category "B", while the women achieved 14 points in category "C".

In addition to the overall standings, nearly 200 teams are divided into five categories based on the average rating of team members. The Turkmen teams, both seeded 73rd in the overall standings, competed in categories "B" and "C", respectively.

In the overall standings, the men ranked 24th among 188 participating teams and the girls 32nd among 169 teams. These results are the best in the entire history of domestic chess participation at the World Chess Olympiads.

The men's team outperformed renowned chess teams such as Iran, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Sweden, and Austria. Meanwhile, our young girls ranked higher than Italy, Australia, Iran, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Belgium, and Norway.

The coach of the team attributes this unprecedented success to an extraordinary sense of unity among both the boys and girls. "At crucial moments, each player pushed their games to the very end and maximized every opportunity," says Mergen Kakabayev, head of the delegation, Secretary General of the Turkmenistan Chess Federation.

Representing Turkmenistan were international master Saparmyrat Atabayev (1st board), experienced international grandmaster Meylis Annaberdiyev, and Olympiad debutants Amanmuhammet Hommadov (3rd board), Allayar Shirliyev (4th board), and Vepaly Hylynyazov (5th reserve board).

Among the girls, only 18-year-old Lala Shohradova (1st board) had previous experience participating in Olympiads. Nevertheless, all other team members, including Meryem Agajanova (2nd board), Leyla Shohradova (3rd female board), Jahan Rejepova (4th board), and Enesh Arazmedova (5th reserve board), gave their best and demonstrated their moral and volitional qualities.

In the final 11th round, with a draw score of 1.5 : 1.5 in both the men's match against Israel (seeded 20th) and the women's match against Croatia (seeded 40th), the fate of the minor gold medal rested on the remaining games of Allayar Shirliyev and 14-year-old Jahan Rejepova. Allayar faced the bronze medalist from the 2010 Olympiad, Grandmaster Ilya Smirin, while Jahan, with a rating of 1915, played against FIDE Master Patricia Vujnovic from Croatia, who had a rating of 2134. Despite the competitive nature of the matches and the possibility of draws, our "fighters" refused to accept a draw result and managed to "squeeze out" victories against their more experienced opponents, ultimately securing first place in their respective categories.

It is important to note that throughout the tournament, the coach of the men's national team, Honored Coach of Turkmenistan Serdar Annaberdiyev, the coach of the women's national team, candidate master of sports Shahruh Turayev, and the head of the delegation, FIDE Master Mergen Kakabayev, worked tirelessly with the players. Experienced coaches comprehensively prepared each player for every game, both theoretically and psychologically, including studying the opening repertoire and playing style of each opponent. At a critical moment of the tournament, a professional psychologist was engaged to raise the confidence of young players before the decisive meetings with famous opponents.

The champions in both sections were the Indian team, which surpassed the USA in the men's section and the previous Olympic champions, Uzbekistan, who took 2nd and 3rd places, respectively. Among women, Kazakhstan (2nd place) and the USA (3rd) also reached the podium.

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Photo: TKF