Maksat Atabaev became the champion of Turkmenistan in chess. The 28-year-old international grandmaster from Ashgabat achieved this success by winning the major league tournament that ended in the capital's specialized chess and checkers school. It was held in a round robin manner for two weeks.

As expected, the   main struggle for the championship was between the three Atabaev brothers.

Despite an unsuccessful start - a loss in the first round from Shahruh Turayev, Maksat Atabaev, who has a FIDE rating of 2472, consistently played the rest of the tournament distance and eventually excelled with a score of 10.5 points out of 13 possible.

Maksat Atabayev became the champion of Turkmenistan in chess for the sixth time. Previously, he won the National Major League Chess Championship in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017.

But his brothers Yusup and Saparmyrat, who alternately led in the first half of the tournament, made unfortunate misses at the finish line and eventually missed the championship. Grandmaster Yusup Atabaev (2516) lost in the 11^th round to FIDE Master Azat Nurmammedov (2408). As for the international master Saparmyrat Atabayev (2448), he barely saved the game in the 10^th round against the national champion among women Lale Shohradova (1891), and in the 12^th round he completely lost to the candidate master Soltan Muradov (2222).

As a result, 28-year-old Yusup and 23-year-old Saparmyrat scored 10 points each, but the additional Sonneborn-Berger coefficient placed Saparmyrat in 2^nd place in the standings.

According to the results of the championship, the national team, in addition to the winners, included Azat Nurmammedov, who took 4-5 places, and 16-year-old first-class Amanmuhammet Hommadov (1956), who became the opening of the tournament. In the final standings, this young talented chess player outperformed such strong opponents as Shahruh Turaev (6^th place), Soltan Muradov (7^th place), FIDE Master Mergen Kakabaev (8^th place) and International Master Karen Grigoryan (9^th place). It will be interesting to watch the promising young man at international competitions during this year.

As representatives of the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan comment, members of both the women's and men's national teams will be able to adequately represent the honor of the country at official international competitions this year.