Turkmen chess players from Lebap velayat Maksat Avlyakuliev and Aya Bayramova won two silver medals at the Asian Rapid Chess Championship among schoolchildren in Bangkok.
Rapid is a fast-paced version of chess with a time limit for thinking, where each player is given 15 minutes for the entire game, with an increment of 10 seconds for each move.
The competition in the capital of Thailand brought together 555 participants from 31 countries, who competed for the title of the strongest in six age categories – under 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 years old.
Seeded 12th Maksat Avlyakuliev won silver in the boys under 9 years old category. He scored 6 points. The same number of points was scored by the 4th seed Amirzhan Anetov from Kazakhstan, who won the gold medal by winning the personal encounter. The bronze medal was won by another athlete from Kazakhstan – 5th seed Alikhan Nazarbek, who was half a point behind the leaders.
10-year-old Aya Bayramova, seeded 9th, won silver in the under 11 years old girls category. Scoring 6 points out of 7 possible, she was only half a point behind tournament winner Peng Jingyi from China (3rd seed). The top three was completed by the first seed Victoria Makhina from Russia with 5 points.
Our compatriots Alikhan Batyrov from the Mary velayat and Serdar Bayramov from the Lebap velayat were not lucky enough, and based on additional indicators they remained one step away from medals.
In the boys under 11 years old category, athletes from India Narendra Agarwal (seeded 10th) and from the Islamic Republic of Iran Ramtin Kakavand (seeded 1st) scored 6 points each and took 1st and 2nd places, respectively. Four participants who were aiming for the bronze medal scored 5.5 points each. Among them was Alikhan, seeded 4th. However, according to additional indicators for a greater number of victories in black, the bronze medal went to athlete from Kazakhstan Ibrahim Bakyt (seeded 11th), and Alikhan ended up in 6th place in the final standings.
In the category among boys under 17 years old, with 5.5 points each, 1st and 2nd places were shared by FIDE master from the Philippines Arca Christian (3rd seed) and FIDE master from Mongolia Ulzikhishig Khishigbat (10th seed). The five players who were aiming for the bronze medal, including Serdar Bayramov, seeded 15th, were half a point behind the leaders. But the medal went to Myanmar's FIDE Master Sai Khan Thikha (6th seed) for the greater number of wins. Serdar finished sixth.
Among our athletes, 7-year-old schoolgirl from Mary velayat Anna Charyeva also performed successfully, taking 6th place with 5 points.
In the team event in the rapid format, Turkmenistan took 7th place among 31 countries. First place went to Kazakhstan with 9 medals, including 5 gold, second place went to China. And third place went to Russia, whose athletes competed under the flag of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). The top ten also included: India (4th place), the Philippines (5th place), Uzbekistan (6th place with one gold medal), Mongolia (8th place), Vietnam (9th place) and Iran (10th place).
