The men’s national chess team of Turkmenistan secured its fourth victory at the ongoing 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand. In the sixth round, the Turkmen chess players sensationally defeated Denmark 3.5–0.5. Denmark, ranked 25th among the teams, fielded international grandmasters on its first three boards and an international master on the fourth.
Grandmaster Saparmyrat Atabayev (rating 2503), playing on the first board, drew with grandmaster Jonas Buhl Bjerre (2615). On the remaining boards, however, the Turkmen players recorded three victories: International Grandmaster Meylis Annaberdiyev (2384) defeated grandmaster Jesper Sondergaard Thybo (2579); FIDE Master Amanmuhammet Hommadov (2389) proved stronger than grandmaster Bjørn Møller Ochsner (2478); and Vepaly Halynyazov (2257) defeated International Master Filip Boe Olsen (2453).
Notably, Meylis Annaberdiyev has scored 4.5 points out of 5, winning four consecutive games. His tournament performance rating is 2788. Vepaly Halynyazov has won all three games he has played, with a performance rating of 2865, while Amanmuhammet Hommadov has scored 4.5 points out of 6.
In the sixth round, the Turkmenistan women’s national team drew 2:2 with Spain, the 19th-seeded team, all four of whose players hold the titles of International Master or Woman Grandmaster. The 2026 Turkmenistan champion, FIDE Master Lala Shohradova (2147), drew with International Master Marta Garcia Martin (2349) on the first board, while FIDE Master candidate Leyla Shohradova (2101) drew with International Master Sabrina Vega Gutierrez (2363) on the second board. Woman FIDE Master Jahan Rejepova lost to International Master Ann Matnadze Bujiashvili (2302) on the third board. On the fourth board, Myahri Agamyradova (1939) secured her third consecutive victory over a titled opponent, defeating Woman Grandmaster Monica Calzetta Ruiz (2181).
Myahri Agamyradova has emerged as a revelation for the national team at the Olympiad. She has scored 4.5 points out of 5 with a performance rating of 2382, adding more than 100 rating points.
After six rounds, the Turkmenistan men’s team ranks 25th among 206 teams, while the women’s team ranks 26th among 190. At the start of the tournament, however, the men’s team was seeded only 65th and the women’s team 55th. Both teams have nine match points out of a possible 12, and in the last two rounds neither team has lost to opponents who were ranked 27–46 places higher in the initial seeding list.
It should be recalled that at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad, the Turkmenistan men’s team is headed by Honored Coach of Turkmenistan Serdar Annaberdiyev as captain, while the women’s team is led by Mergen Kakabayev, Secretary General of the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan.
According to him, the performance of our teams at the Olympiad can be described as almost sensational.
“If you look at the standings, you can see that teams with the same starting number as ours are much lower down. But none of the players on our national team is relaxing, and everyone is focused on consolidating these results,” noted Mergen Kakabayev.
At this Olympiad, both Turkmenistan teams are competing in rating category “B.” Two years ago in Budapest, the teams achieved the best results in their history: the men’s team won category “B,” while the women’s team won category “C.” The task facing our chess players in Samarkand is to repeat that success by once again taking first place in their respective categories, as well as achieving the required norms for international master titles and improving their individual ratings.
