Turkmenistan's representatives won one gold and one silver medal at the recently concluded Central Asia Chess Championship for boys and girls aged 8 to 16 in Korumdu (Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan). This was reported to the "GA" correspondent by the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan.
Over 300 participants, including 128 from Kyrgyzstan, 98 from Kazakhstan and 69 from Uzbekistan competed for medals in ten age categories (5 for boys and 5 for girls) in the tournament, held in a 9-round Swiss system with classical time control—90 minutes per player with a 30-second increment from the first move.
The Turkmenistan team consisted of five players—two boys and three girls, two of whom reached the podium.
Aylar Hemrayeva (FIDE rating-1483), a schoolgirl from Mary velayat, won the top prize in the girls' under-8 category, scoring 7.5 out of 9 possible points. After losing the first round, Aylar bounced back to win four consecutive games. In the 6th round, she drew, and in the last three games, she achieved decisive victories, including against Amelia Ametova (7 points) from Kazakhstan and Amina Shergaliyeva (6 points) from Kyrgyzstan, who finished second and third, respectively.
Aylar, trained by Turkmenistan's honored coach Ejegyz Yalkanova, became the national champion among her peers for the first time in February this year and took a respectable 4th place in the under-8 category at the World Blitz Championship in Albania in the spring.
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Lale Vepaeva (FIDE rating 1481), a 9-year-old Ashgabat schoolgirl and student of the first private chess academy "Kusht Alemi," won the silver medal in the girls' under-10 category. After the 5th round, she had only 2.5 points (1 win, 1 loss and 3 draws), but in the last four rounds, she secured four important victories in a row, including over the tournament champion from Kyrgyzstan, Aimana Saizildaeva (rating 1549), and climbed to the second step of the podium. Inzhu Abibulla from Kazakhstan completed the top three. Notably, all three prize-winners, including 4th place Aruuke Toktosunova from Kyrgyzstan, scored the same number of points—6.5 out of 9 possible. However, based on additional indicators, our chess player became second.
In February, Lale finished in the top ten at the Turkmenistan Championship in the under-10 category. And now she has become the vice-champion of Central Asia.
The final sprints of the young girls demonstrate not only their playing level but also the high sports spirit and relentless pursuit of victory by Turkmen chess players. Another proof of this is the high efficiency of our compatriots participating in the championship, who, with a team of five, secured third place for Turkmenistan in the medal standings.
