Young Turkmen chess players won gold and silver medals at the Central Asian Classical Chess Championship among boys and girls aged 8 to 16, which was held from August 10 to 18 in Korumdu (Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan).

In the U8 girl’s category, schoolgirl Aylar Khemraeva from the Mary region (FIDE rating - 1483) won the gold medal, scoring 7.5 points out of 9 possible. After losing the first round, Aylar was able to recover and win the next four games in a row. In the 6th round, Aylar tied, and in the last three games she won three decisive victories, including over her opponents from Kazakhstan Amelia Ametova and Kyrgyzstan Amina Shergalieva, who ultimately took second and third places, respectively.

This spring, at the World Blitz Championship in Albania, seven-year-old Aylar took a worthy 4th place in the same category under 8 years old. The talented girl, who trains under the guidance of honored coach of Turkmenistan Ejegyz Yalkanova, became the champion of the country for the first time in February of this year.

In the U10 girl’s category, nine-year-old Ashgabat schoolgirl and student of the first private chess academy "Kusht Alemi" Lale Vepayeva (FIDE rating - 1481) won the silver medal with 6.5 points out of 9 possible. After the 5th round, Lale had only 2.5 points (1 win, 1 loss and 3 draws), but in the last four rounds she won four important victories in a row, including over the tournament champion from Kyrgyzstan Aimana Saizildayeva (rating - 1549), and rose to the second step of the podium. And the top three was closed by the chess player from Kazakhstan Inzhu Abibulla.

In February, at the national championship in the U10 category, Lale finished in the top ten, which testifies to the high level of play and the potential of young girls in our country.

The finishing "spurts" of young girls demonstrate not only the level of play, but also the high sports spirit and desire to win of Turkmen chess players. Another proof of this is the high efficiency of our participants in the Central Asian Championship. Five young representatives of our country won two medals. In total, more than 300 chess players took part in the tournament, including 128 representatives of Kyrgyzstan, 98 participants from Kazakhstan and 69 from Uzbekistan.

Despite the impressive numbers of participants from neighboring countries, our country took a worthy third place in the overall medal count.

The tournament was held according to the Swiss system in 9 rounds with a classic time control - 90 minutes for each player with an increment of 30 seconds, starting from the first move.