Today, the international rapid and blitz chess tournament Kids Expo Chess Cup 2026 started at the Exhibition Center of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan. The competition among cadets in the under-8, under-10 and under-12 age categories is being held under the auspices of the Turkic Chess Association and the International School Chess Federation as part of the large-scale exhibition “Kids Expo: Everything for Children.” The tournament, which is also organized and supported by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan, the Chess Federation of our country, the Freedom Asian Chess Initiatives (FACI) program of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, the Freedom group of companies, as well as TurkmenExpo, opens the festival’s extensive ChessFest program and promises to become a major event for the entire region.
The competition has proved truly large-scale and representative: 96 young chess players from eight countries – Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan – took their seats at the boards. The hosts entered 81 participants, while foreign federations sent 15 athletes. The tournament schedule is extremely intensive: on the first day, the youngsters will play seven rounds of rapid chess, and on the second – nine rounds of blitz, with results being updated in real time.
Judging by the starting lists, the competition promises to be uncompromising. In four of the six categories, the top seed went to a guest player. The most prominent figure in the tournament is 12-year-old Sadra Roshantab from Iran. His rating of 2248 is the highest in the tournament, and in his U12 category he is almost 280 points ahead of his nearest pursuer.
No less impressive is the story of his 9-year-old compatriot Kiasha Mahboobi, who is playing in U10 and, with a rating of 2115, would have overtaken everyone in the older group except one player.
Kazakhstan leads in two categories thanks to Zakariya Amirov (U8, 1651) and Akniet Kumisbay (U10, 1687), while Uzbekistan has brought two second seeds – Lazizbek Shavkatov (U12, 1971) and Abdurakhmon Rajabov (U10, 1920).
The hosts of the tournament look strongest in the girls’ competitions. Aya Bayramova (G12, 1826) has the highest rating among all female participants, while Dilber Hupbyyeva (1773) is competing alongside her – the only Turkmen participant holding the Woman Candidate Master title. In the girls’ under-8 category, the top seed is Turkmen chess player Bahar Jumayeva. In the open categories, the strongest of the Turkmen chess players is Maksat Avliyakuliyev, the third seed in U12 with a rating of 1914. Joining the titled players is Mehriban Ahmadli from Azerbaijan (G12, WCM, 1610).
The Kids Expo Chess Cup is being held for the first time, and the organizers have sought to make it not simply a tournament, but a real celebration. Throughout the exhibition, the “Chess Corner” area is operating, where anyone can learn to play in half an hour, take part in mini-simultaneous exhibitions, solve quizzes or play a game on a huge floor chessboard. The most spectacular format will be a blindfold simultaneous exhibition, in which the grandmaster plays without looking at the board, while spectators on the “shared board” choose moves by voting.
As part of the festival, renowned grandmasters and world junior champions have also arrived in Ashgabat – First Vice-President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation Darmen Sadvakasov and Secretary General of the Turkic Chess Association and the Azerbaijan Chess Federation Ilaha Gadimova. They will conduct a series of master classes for the women’s and junior national teams of Turkmenistan.
An important part of the business program was the international round table “Chess, Youth, Education and International Cooperation,” which brought together heads of national federations from 11 countries. The meeting was held as part of the Year of Chess in Education – 2026, declared by FIDE and the International School Chess Federation. The main topic was the successful integration of chess into school curricula, with the experience of Kazakhstan, which has introduced chess lessons in more than 1,500 schools, serving as a key example. As noted by Timur Turlov, President of the International School Chess Federation, the tournament and events in Ashgabat demonstrate in practice how chess is becoming a universal tool for children’s development, while the festival itself will lay the foundation for systematic work in the region.
