Yhlas Narimanov, a 6th grade student of Turkmenabat Secondary School № 41, won a silver medal in the individual competition at the World Chess Championship among school teams that ended in Aktau (Kazakhstan). He achieved this success by playing in the team of his school on the 2nd board in the age category under 12 years.
Yhlas Narimanov, who turned 12 on May 31, showed a "performance rating" (level of play) of 87.5%, second only to Ukrainian Stanislav Pentsko (93.8%). The bronze medalist was Asmi Ayat from Pakistan.
The first ever World Championship among school teams was held under the auspices of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in two age categories – under 12 and 18 years with the participation of about 350 students from 53 countries from all continents. Participants from Paraguay, Peru and Madagascar traveled the longest way to Aktau, the Consulate General of Turkmenistan in Aktau reports.
Yhlas Narimanov dedicated his silver medal to his teammate Aman Jumaev, who could not come to the tournament due to a visa situation caused by a human error of one of the organizers.
Thus, the team of Turkmenistan (U-12) had to play in the championship, where four boards were provided, with three players – Didar Baltaev (1st board), Yhlas Narimanov (2nd board) and Lachin Achildieva (3rd board). But despite this, the team of Turkmenabat school № 41 showed a decent result – with 9 points out of 16 possible and took 11th place among 27 teams.
The Velammal MHS Mogappair School from the Indian city of Chennai, the birthplace of the 15th world champion Viswanathan Anand, became the world champion in the age category under 12 years. Schoolchildren from Lviv Academic Gymnasium (Ukraine) rose to the second step of the podium, and the team of the Republican Physics and Mathematics School of Almaty (Kazakhstan) finished the tournament in third place.
It is noteworthy that Turkmenistan was also represented in the category under 18 by the team of the same 41st school from Turkmenabat, this team’s chess players are Sanjar Gaibullayev (15 years old), the current champion of the country under the age of 16, Gurbanmyrat Rustemov (13 years old), the current champion of the country under the age of 14, Begench Artykov(16 years old), who had not previously competed in official competitions, and Gulmira Seyilkhanova, the silver medalist of the recent Asian Championship among schoolgirls under 15 years old. Having scored 9 points out of 16 possible, the senior team of the Turkmenabat school also showed a decent result and took 17th place among 43 teams.
It should be noted that the average age of the members of the senior team of school № 41 does not even reach 15 years. This means that in the next few years, the guys can continue to play in the same squad, which will undoubtedly progress and improve tournament performance.
The undisputed champions in the senior age group (U-18) were high school students from the Istanbul private school ENKA, who showed a 100 percent result – 16 points. On the second line is the Almaty "Physical Math School" (12 points). Another Chennai school from the "Velammal" school network closed the prize three.
It should be added that a huge assistance in sending the team of Turkmenistan to this World Championship was provided byES "Yigit", which helps to dynamically and quickly develop chess in our country.
