Sportsmen from Turkmenistan won five medals at the 2026 Central and North Asian Chess Championship, which is taking place in the village of Korumdu in the Issyk-Kul region of the Kyrgyz Republic with representatives from six countries participating.
According to the organisers, more than 500 young chess players aged 8 to 20 from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan are participating in the tournament, competing for medals in rapid chess, traditional «classical» chess, and blitz (lightning chess).
According to the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan, our team is represented by 19 chess players in various age categories.
The first set of medals was awarded in rapid chess, in which the tournament was held according to the Swiss system in 7 rounds with a time control of 10 minutes per game with an increment of 5 seconds for each move. In this event, the Turkmen team won 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal.
The winners of the tournament were: in the youngest age group among girls under 8 years old - a 3rd-grade student of Secondary School №27 in Turkmenabat, Meryem Rustemova (born in 2018, rating 1585), and in the category under 10 years old - a 4th-grade student of Secondary School №2 in Danev etrap, Lebap velayat, Bagul Jumayeva (born in 2017, rating 1597). Meryem scored 6 points out of a possible 7 and increased her international rating by 46.8 points, while Bagul took the lead with 6.5 points and increased her rating by 97.2 points.
Turkmen chess players won two silver medals in the oldest age category, under 20 years old.In the men's tournament, this success was achieved by Annamuhammet Hommadov (rating 2396), a third-year student of the Turkmen state institute of physical education and sports and a graduate of the Ashgabat specialised chess and Checkers School. He scored 5 points and increased his rating by 22.8 points.
In the women's tournament, Lala Shohradova, a student at the International university of oil and gas named after Yagshygeldi Kakayev (rating 2153), won silver with a score of 5 points.
Both silver medalists are training under the guidance of Serdar Annaberdiyev.
The winner of the bronze medal in the category of under 12 years old was Ayya Bayramova, a 7th-grade student of Secondary school №31 in Turkmenabat (born in 2014, rating 1920). She scored 5.5 points and increased her rating by 39.6 points.
Participants in the 2026 Central and North Asian Championship will compete for the next set of medals in classical chess with a standard time control, and a blitz tournament will be held on the final day of the competition.
