The 25-year-old international master from Ashgabat Saparmurat Atabaev won the 2nd International Chess Tournament “Al-Beruniy” (Futures).

According to the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan, the tournament was held in a round-robin system with classical time control and brought together the strongest chess players, including grandmasters and FIDE masters from Uzbekistan, India, Russia, Sweden, Belarus and other countries.

Following the results of nine rounds, Saparmurat Atabayev, who has a FIDE rating of 2516, scored 7 points. Indian grandmaster Pa Iniyan scored the same number of points (FIDE rating – 2523). However, in the decisive tie-break, he lost to S. Atabaev and eventually took second place. Belarusian grandmaster Mikhail Nikitenko rounded out the top three with a score of 6.5 points (FIDE rating – 2512).

The victory in this tournament allowed Saparmurat Atabaev to win a cash prize in the amount of 3,500 US dollars and fulfill the necessary (third) norm for conferring the title of international grandmaster. The official decision will be made at a meeting of the Council of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

Recall that in June 2023, at the Zonal Central Asian Tournament of the World Cup in Dushanbe, Saparmurat entered the top three of the strongest chess players, in December of the same year he won the "Rocky-2023 Masters chess" festival in Tashkent. And last year, he became the winner of the 33-year-old elite tournament "White Elephant", which was held in Turkey.

It is noteworthy that the first coach of Saparmurat Atabaev and his mentor to this day is the honored coach of Turkmenistan Aidogdy Atabaev.