Today, young Turkmen champions played their first games at the World Chess Championship in Batumi (Georgia). Twelve best chess players of Turkmenistan (6 girls and 6 boys) participate in age categories from 8 to 18 years. The tournament is held with the “rapid” time control regulation, that is, each player is given 15 minutes with an addition of 10 seconds for each move.

After the first game day, two Turkmen chess players immediately go with a 100% result - 3 points out of 3 games. These are Maksat Avlyakuliyev (not yet rated by FIDE) in the under 8 category and Alikhan Batyrov (rapid rating: 1733) in the under 10 category. Together with several other chess players Maksat and Alikhan share the first places in the tournament table among 62 and 68 participants respectively from all over the world.

In the 4th round, Alikhan will play at the first board with the rating favorite of the tournament, American Ethan Guo (rapid rating: 2011), and Maksat will fight with Indian representative Shyan Muhammad, seeded under 5th number.

It should also be noted the silver medalist of this year's Asian online rapid championship Amanmukhammed Khommadov (2244), who with 2.5 points out of 3 possible shares 3rd-4th places among 27 participants in the category under 18 years old. In the next round he will play with Karen Tovmasyan (1832) from Armenia.

Among girls and girls, Lala Shokhradova (1926) should be noted, who, with 2 points out of 3, shares 6-8th places and is half a point behind the leading group in the category under 18 years old.

The rapid tournament consists of 11 rounds and will end on June 8th. And on June 10 and 11, the world championship with blitz rules will be held here, where each player is allocated 3 minutes with an addition of 2 seconds for each move.

Honored coach of Turkmenistan Serdar Annaberdiyev and head of the delegation Sona Jumagulyeva prepare the team during the tournament.