Turkmen athletes rose to a new level in the world rankings at the 45th World Chess Olympiad, which ended in Budapest (Hungary), where 188 men's and 169 women's teams competed for medals in 11 rounds according to the Swiss system. All of them were divided into five categories depending on the average rating.

The men's and women's teams of Turkmenistan, both seeded 73rd overall, were awarded small gold medals for first place in their categories. The men won Group B with 15 points, leaving the teams of Latvia and Kazakhstan in second and third place, respectively, with 14 points. And the women won Group C with 14 points, beating the Malaysian team (14 points) and the Sri Lankan chess players, who finished third with 13 points, in additional indicators.

Having won two victories in a row at the finish of the tournament over rivals from Singapore (45th seed) - 3:1 and Israel (20th seed) - 2.5:1.5, the men's team of Turkmenistan took 24th place in the overall standings. And our women's team, having beaten the Croatian team (40th seed) in the last round - 2.5:1.5, rose to 32nd place. These results are the best in the entire history of participation of representatives of domestic chess in the World Chess Olympiads.

It is noteworthy that such strong teams of Vietnam, Iran, Bulgaria, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Sweden, Austria and other countries, staffed with international grandmasters, were left behind the men's team of Turkmenistan. And our young girls turned out to be higher than the more famous teams of Italy, Australia, Iran, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Norway and many others.

Such unprecedented success of the Turkmen teams is connected with the united team spirit among both boys and girls, believes the Secretary General of the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan Mergen Kakabayev.

“At the right moments, each player of the team worked on their games to the very end and squeezed the maximum out of every opportunity,” said M. Kakabayev.

A striking example of this was the 11th round, in which, with a draw of 1.5:1.5 in both the men's match against Israel and the women's match against Croatia, the fate of the small gold medals in groups “B” and “C” was decided in the remaining games of Allayar Shirliyev and Jahan Rejepova.

Allayar played against the bronze medalist of the 2010 Olympiad, the famous international grandmaster Ilya Smirin, and Jahan Rejebova, who has a rating of 1915, against FIDE master Patricia Vujnovic with a rating of 2134. Despite the equal nature of the struggle and the likelihood of a draw, A. Shirliyev and J. Rejepova did not accept the draw and were able to put the squeeze on their more experienced opponents, which ultimately ensured first place for our teams in their categories.

The best result in the men's team was shown by 39-year-old international grandmaster Meylis Annaberdiyev (2nd board), who scored 7 points out of 11. Half a point less in the asset of 25-year-old international master

Saparmurat Atabayev (1st board). 5 points out of 10 possible were scored on the 3rd board by 18-year-old Amanmuhammet Hommadov, 4.5 points out of 8 by 21-year-old current champion of the country Allayar Shirliyev (4th board) and 3.5 points out of 4 by 19-year-old Vepaly Halyniyazov, who played with a replacement on the 4th board.

100% result in the women's team was shown by 17-year-old reserve Enesh Arazmedova, who won 5 victories in five games on the 4th board. 18-year-old champion of Turkmenistan Meryem Agajanova (2nd board) scored 6 points in 10 games. The personal performance of other Turkmen chess players is as follows: 17-year-old Leyla Shohradova (3rd board) and 14-year-old Jahan Rejepova (4th board) have 5.5 points after 10 and 9 games, respectively, while the 18-year-old vice-champion of the country Lala Shohradova (1st board) has 5 points out of 10 possible. By the way, Lala was the only chess player in our women's team who had previous experience of participating in the Olympiads.

It is important to note that throughout the tournament, the coach of the men's team, Honored Coach of Turkmenistan Serdar Annaberdiev, the coach of the women's team, Candidate Master of Sports Shahruh Turayev and the head of the delegation, FIDE Master Mergen Kakabayev worked tirelessly with the players. Experienced specialists comprehensively prepared each player before each game, both theoretically and psychologically, right down to studying the opening repertoire and playing style of each opponent. And at a critical moment of the tournament, a professional psychologist was brought in to boost the confidence of young players before the decisive matches with famous opponents.

The champions in both sections were the Indian team, which beat the US chess players and the previous Olympic champions from Uzbekistan in the men's tournament, who took 2nd and 3rd places, respectively. And among women, representatives of Kazakhstan (2nd place) and the USA (3rd) also climbed the podium.

The next, 46th World Chess Olympiad will be held in 2026

in Uzbekistan. At the awards ceremony for the winners and prize-winners in Budapest, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich handed over the flag and torch of the competition to the leader of the Uzbek team Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the winner of the silver medal of the current Olympiad on the 1st board.