On whom does chess fortune smile?

November 30, 2022 | 07:30 |11606

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On the previous day of the competition, experts predicted that the real balance of power would be determined by the second day of the blitz chess championship, since many of the leading players had not yet met each other by that time. But it turned out that the final day did not make any special changes in the standings. Almost everyone who took the lead at the beginning held their lead until the last game.

After several days of intense chess battles in rapid and blitz, many were surprised by the final of the competition. First of all, I was surprised by the composure and endurance of the leaders. It seemed that nervous tension (especially in blitz) would force them to make obvious mistakes and omissions, but no. The main players - the nearest reserve of the national team – showed outstanding resilience, showing how to play in a multi-day race for the chess crown.

And first of all, this concerns the Atabaev brothers – Yusup and Maksat, between whom the struggle went on until the last moment of the competition. Yusup scored 20 points, and Maksat – half a point less. The previous day they played a draw with each other. But the stumbling block in their path was FIDE Master Mergen Kakabaev. Yusup on the same day in a difficult duel with him tied, and Maksat lost.

The fate of the first place in the tournament depended on how the Atabaev brothers would fight in all the remaining games. And the slightest mistake could be fatal ...

Both chess players, having shown the fighting restraint characteristic of true masters, in all duels in a brilliant manner defeated their rivals. However, the gap in the minimum half a point became an insurmountable obstacle between the first and second places, which were deservedly taken by the country's strongest chess players Yusup and Maksat Atabaev. Recall that the first of them is an international master, and the second is a grandmaster. And the third place went to FIDE Master Azat Nurmammedov.

So chess fortune smiles on the strong and persistent!

This thesis was repeated in the games of the women's category. The first two places were shared peacefully and without any difficulties by Dzhemal Ovezdurdiyeva and Lala Shokhradova, who were well ahead of the main group. Both champions in different types of chess: the first in classical, and the second in rapid. Although there was a big gap of 3.5 points between them.

But for the third place among women, a real battle unfolded. And if the day before, four girls were in third place at once, then on the final day, during the struggle for the bronze step, only the two most stubborn participants in the competition remained on the podium – Ogulsurai Bayrambayeva and Enesh Orazmedova, who scored 15 points each.

The members of the judging panel had, in accordance with the regulation on the competition, to turn to the additional Buchholz coefficient. This is an indicator that helps determine the place among the participants in the competition who scored the same number of points. It consists of the sum of all the points of the opponents with whom this participant played, regardless of the result of the meetings between them.

However, the Buchholz coefficient did not help to unambiguously name the winner in the fight between Ogulsurai and Enesh. Then the judges had to turn to another way of determining places in the competition among participants who scored an equal number of points. This time – to the Berger coefficient, which is the sum of all the points of the opponents against whom this chess player has won, plus half the sum of the points of the opponents with whom he has drawn. And when all this was carefully counted, the third place went to Ogulsurai.

It turns out that fortune smiles on even stubborn...

And finally, the last word, according to our tradition, belongs to Secretary General of the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan, FIDE Master Mergen Kakabaev, who will comment on one of the most interesting games of the final day of the championship.