The men's and women's teams of Turkmenistan won their third victory at the 46^th World Chess Olympiad, which is ongoing in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

After crushing victories over the teams of East Timor (168^th seed in the ranking) and Mozambique (120^th seed) – 4:0, the Turkmen chess players confidently won against the 102^nd seeded team of Sudan in the 4^th round – 3.5:0.5. The only draw in our team was made by Grandmaster Saparmyrat Atabayev (rating 2503), who shared points in the game with black pieces on the first board with International Master Omar Eltigani (2259). The rest of his teammates won their games: Grandmaster Meylis Annaberdiyev (2384) beat FIDE Master Hasan Ahmed (2190) on board 2, the 2026 Turkmenistan Champion and FIDE Master Amanmuhammet Hommadov (2389) beat FIDE Master Mohamed Abdallah Abdelaziz (2169) on board 3, and Shahruh Turayev (2222) beat FIDE Candidate Master Moawiya Ahmed Kholi Ali (2089) on board 4.

Following this victory, the 65^th-seeded Turkmenistan men's team with an average rating of 2383 moved up 19 spots in the standings, sharing 35^th-36^th place with the Vietnamese team among 206 teams in the open tournament.

The women's team of Turkmenistan (55^th seed, average rating 2057) also moved up 19 spots in the tournament table, ranking 36th among 190 teams after four rounds.

In the first round, the Turkmen chess players convincingly beat the representatives of Liechtenstein (151^st seed) - 4:0, in the third they defeated their opponents from Suriname (105^th place in the ranking) - 3:1, and in the fourth they won a confident victory over the Jordanian team (90^th seed) - 3.5:0.5. The only draw in our quartet was made by the 2025 Turkmenistan Champion, FIDE Woman Master Jahan Rejepova (rated 2027), who made a draw on the 3^rd board with FIDE Candidate Master Helal Jeda (1818). As for the other games, on the first board, the 2026 Turkmenistan Champion, FIDE Master Lala Shohradova (2147) won against unrated chess player Akhmad Jude (1784), on the second, Leyla Shohradova (2101) defeated FIDE Master Alshabi Razan (1834), and on the fourth, Ogulsuray Bayrambayeva (1952) defeated Women's International Master Al-Quda Ruba (2080).

Out of the four matches played at the Olympics, our teams have lost only one. In the second round, the men's team lost 1:3 to the strong 15^th-seeded Serbian team, which features exclusively international grandmasters, while the women's team lost to the 9^th-seeded Poland team with the same score.

The captain of our men's team is Honoured Coach of Turkmenistan Serdar Annaberdiyev, and the captain of the women's team is Mergen Kakabayev.

In the next, 5^th round, the men's team of Turkmenistan will face the team from Slovakia (38^th seed), which the day before confidently won against the representatives of Venezuela (78^th seed) - 3.5:0.5. The women's team will play against equally formidable opponents – the Argentine chess players (seeded 28^th), who suffered their first defeat at the Olympiad in the previous round against the Uzbekistan team (seeded 13^th) – 1:3.