Turkmen chess players won five medals at the Asian Schools Chess Championship held in Bangkok.

The competition in the Thai capital gathered 555 participants from 31 countries, competing for the title of the strongest in six age categories: under 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 years.

Our compatriots won the first two silver medals in rapid chess, where each player was allocated 15 minutes for the entire game with an additional 10 seconds per move. Maksat Avlyakuliev achieved this success in the boys' under-9 category, and 10-year-old Aya Bayramova in the girls' under-11 category.

Turkmen chess players also won two more silver and one bronze medals in blitz chess—a fast-paced game with a time control of 3 minutes per game and an additional 2 seconds per move.

Anna Charyeva, a student from secondary school No. 25 in Mary, received a silver medal in the youngest age category—not older than 7 years. She scored 6.5 points out of a possible 9, trailing by 2.5 points behind the winner Amalia Edreshova from Kazakhstan and ahead by half a point of Aaranya R from India, who finished third.

Serdar Bayramov also added a silver medal to his achievements in the boys' under-17 category. A student of the Lebap chess school scored the same number of points—7.5—as the tournament winner from the Philippines, FIDE Master Christian Arca, but due to a loss in their head-to-head match, he ended up in second place. The top three were rounded out by FIDE Master Ulzikhishig Khishigbat from Mongolia, who was one point behind the leaders.

The fifth medal for our team, this time a bronze, went to Dunya Ruslanova from Lebap in the girls' under-9 category. In the battle for bronze, she surpassed four other participants who also scored 6 points due to additional indicators. Gold in this category was won by Divi Bijesh (India) with a perfect score of 9 points, while silver went to Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh from Vietnam, who was one point behind the winner.

Young Turkmen chess players have been winning medals at Asian youth championships for the second year in a row. Our compatriots won seven medals, including one gold, at the previous schools chess championship held in Uzbekistan last year.

As for the Asian Championship with classical time control, the best results from our team were shown by Charykhekim Charyev (boys under 7 – 10th place), Maksat Avlyakuliev (under 9 – 11th place), Alihan Batyrov (under 11 – 11th place), each scoring 6 points out of a possible 9, as well as Gurbanmyrat Rustemov (under 15 – 8th place) and Gulmira Seyilkhanova (under 17 – 8th place), each scoring 5.5 points.

Speaking generally about the level of Asian championships, they are now considered the strongest among tournaments on all continents, surpassing even Europe, which recently led in this regard. This reputation of Asian competitions has especially strengthened after Russian chess joined the Asian Chess Federation. The strong level of chess players in Asia is also evidenced by the recent World Chess Championship match in Singapore, where 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju defeated 32-year-old Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren with a score of 7.5:6.5 to become the youngest world champion in chess history.