The children's national chess team of Turkmenistan has completed its performance at the FIDE World Cup among boys and girls under 8, 10 and 12 years old, which was held from June 22 to July 3 in Batumi, Georgia. This is reported by the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan.

48 of the world's strongest chess players took part in each of the six categories of the tournament, who received exclusive invitations from representatives of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). It is important to note that representatives from Turkmenistan in all six categories also received an invitation to this prestigious tournament, which was held for the first time in a "hybrid" format.

The participants were divided into two groups of 24 people and first played seven games according to the Swiss system. Then the chess players played with opponents who took similar places in another group, and revealed the strongest in 24 pairs according to the knockout system.

The best result among our chess players was shown by schoolgirl Aya Bayramova (Lebap), who took 8th place in her group in the under-10 category and then beat Singapore chess player Sim En Rui in the playoffs after two games, eventually taking 15th place.

Other national champions from Turkmenistan also competed in their categories: Aylar Khemraeva (under 8 years old), Nebakhat Muradova (under 12 years old), Charykhekim Charyev (under 8 years old), Omarbek Ismailov (under 10 years old) and Rauf Yusupov (under 12 years old).

A total of 288 players from 37 countries participated in the tournament. Among the medalists were representatives of the USA, China, India, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

Over the past month, almost 30 chess players from the youth, youth and children's national teams of Turkmenistan have participated in three major tournaments, including the Under-20 World Championship (India), the Asian Championship for ages 8 to 18 (Kazakhstan) and this World Cup.

The Chess Federation of Turkmenistan believes that next year some of these players will begin to create worthy competition in the fight for places in the main men's and women's national teams, and in a few years they will become "the basis". Encouraging healthy competition increases the competitive spirit and raises the motivation of chess players.