The men's team of Turkmenistan won its second victory in a row and the fifth in the tournament at the 45th World Chess Olympiad, which is ongoing in Budapest. In the 8th round, it won with a score of 2.5:1.5 against the 46th seeded team of Iceland (average rating - 2483), for which international grandmasters play on the first three boards, and an international master on the 4th.
The decisive contribution to the success of our team, seeded 73rd, was made by International Master Saparmyrat Atabayev and Grandmaster Meylis Annaberdiyev, who won on the first and second boards, respectively, over Vignir Vatner Stefansson and Gudmundur Kjartonsson, as well as Allayar Shirliyev, who tied on the fourth board with Hilmir Freyr Heimisson.
After this victory, the Turkmen chess players climbed another 20 steps in the tournament table, occupying 55th place among 188 men's teams with 10 points out of a possible 16, and 4 points behind the teams of Uzbekistan and Hungary, who share 2nd and 3rd place.
But the Turkmen chess players (73rd seed; average rating – 1956) after a series of successful games «slowed down». In the 8th round they lost to their opponents from Switzerland (21st seed; average rating – 2282) – 1:3 and with 10 points out of 16 possible dropped from 25th place in the table to 37th among 169 women's teams.
Vice-champion of Turkmenistan Lala Shohradova (personal rating – 2030) played a draw on the first board with the nominated for the title of the best chess player in the history of chess, former world champion, international grandmaster Alexandra Kostenyuk (personal rating – 2483), although during the game she had an advantage and a good chance to inflict her first defeat in the tournament on her famous opponent. According to the coach of the Turkmenistan national team Mergen Kakabayev, «at the decisive moments of the game Lala played too cautiously and lost the advantage». In fairness, it should be noted that in this game, 18-year-old Lala demonstrated an accuracy level of 95.9%, which corresponds to the grandmaster level.
Meryem Agajanova (2nd board; rating – 2007) also drew her game against FIDE Master Lena Georgescu (2266). But Leyla Shohradova and Jahan Rejepova, who played on the 3rd and 4th boards, unfortunately lost to Sofia Gryzlova and the European Champion under 16 Maria Manko, respectively. Jahan made a gross mistake already in the opening, and Leyla, having an advantage, miscalculated when approaching time trouble.
In the next, 9th round, the men's team of Turkmenistan will play against the Canadian team (seeded number 50; average rating - 2468), which is in 42nd place and has made several surprises at the 2024 Olympics, having won against the New Zealand team the day before - 3:1. And our women's team will meet with opponents from Montenegro (seeded number 42; average rating - 2142), who in the previous round won against the chess players of Algeria - 2.5:1.5 and currently occupy the 34th place in the tournament table.
The Indian team continues to hold the lead in the men's overall standings, not knowing defeats yet. And in the women's category, the Indian chess players suffered their first defeat from Poland - 1.5:2.5, and now there is a triumvirate here. India, Poland and Kazakhstan have 14 points out of 16.
