24-year-old talented chess player Saparmyrat Atabayev from Ashgabat fulfilled all the requirements for the title of grandmaster, winning the «Casting 2023 Masters» chess festival that ended today in the capital of Uzbekistan. The correspondent of «GA» was informed about this in the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan.
The Tashkent tournament, held according to the Swiss system in 9 rounds, was attended by 62 chess players from 6 countries, including 3 international grandmasters, 5 international masters and 5 FIDE masters.
After a victory in the sixth round over his main competitor, international grandmaster from the USA Timur Gareyev (Elo/FIDE rating: 2570), Saparmurat Atabayev took sole leadership with 6 points out of six possible. In the next three games he scored another 1.5 points and, in the end, finished the tournament with a score of 7.5 points. T. Gareyev had the same number of points, but due to the victory in the personal match, S. Atabayev took first place. The bronze medalist with 7 points was the international master from Tajikistan Muhammed Husenhojayev.
Saparmyrat, who had an Elo/FIDE rating of 2497 at the beginning of the tournament and three grandmaster points, which he achieved during the year at the Asian Championship in India and international competitions in Iran and China, was able to gain another 7 rating points in 9 rounds and pass the mark of 2500 points, necessary for conferring the title of international grandmaster. This decision will be formalized at the next meeting of the Council International Chess Federation (FIDE).
In this way, Saparmyrat Atabayev became the third grandmaster in Turkmenistan in the last two years and the tenth in the history of chess. Last year, the country's eighth grandmaster was the multiple champion of Turkmenistan, Meylis Annaberdiyev. At the beginning of this year, Saparmyrat’s cousin, Yusup Atabayev, received this coveted title. And before that, in 2015, the title of international grandmaster was awarded to Saparmyrat’s older brother, Maksat Atabayev.
