The student of Turkmen State Architecture and Construction Institute Vepaly Halyniyazov won the Turkmenistan Championship in classical chess among juniors under 20 years old.

The competition was held at the Ashgabat Specialized Chess and Checkers School and brought together more than 100 chess players despite the organizers' introduction of a minimum rating level of 1400 points. This tournament was considered the second strongest in terms of participants, as it included almost all players from the 2024 men's and women's top leagues.

The main favorites of the men's tournament were last year's champion, candidate for master of sports Amanmuhammet Hommadov and vice-champion, FIDE candidate for master Ahmet Gubatayev (both from Ashgabat, born in 2006), who had a 100% result after two rounds. However, in subsequent games they lost some points.

Following the results of 11 rounds, Vepaly Halyniyazov, a graduate of the Lebap chess school, scored 9 points, beating by half a point the 2^nd and 3^rd place winners, respectively, Serdar Bayramov, a high school student from the Lebap velayat, and Amanmuhammet Hommadov, a student of the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Education and Sports, who after two sensational defeats in a row managed to recover in time and catch up with the leaders at the finish line.

Let us remind that last year at the 45^th World Chess Olympiad in Budapest (Hungary) Vepaly Halyniyazov and Amanmuhammet Hommadov, as part of the men's team of Turkmenistan, won small gold medals in the "B" category, finishing in the overall standings on the 24^th place among 188 teams. And Serdar won a silver medal at the Asian Championship among schoolchildren under 17, which was held in Bangkok (Thailand) at the end of 2024.

In the tournament among girls, for the second year in a row, the winner was a student of the Yagshygeldi Kakayev International Oil and Gas University, Lala Shohradova, who scored 9 points out of 11 possible. Another of the Shohradova sisters, 18-year-old Leyla (Lebap), was half a point behind her. And the top three winners were 17-year-old Gulmira Seyilhanova from Lebap, who scored 8 points.

Earlier, sisters Lala and Leila Shohradova won small gold medals in the category "C" of the above-mentioned Olympiad as part of the women's team of Turkmenistan, ultimately taking the 32^nd place among 169 teams in the overall standings. Gulmira's highest achievement is a silver medal at the Asian Rapid Chess Championship among schoolgirls under 15 in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) in 2023.

The winners of the national championship received the right to represent our country at the World Junior Championship, which will be held from February 23 to March 8 in Petrovac (Montenegro), as well as at the Asian Junior Championship, which will be held in Colombo (Sri Lanka).