The current champions of Turkmenistan in chess among boys and girls under 14 Myahri Agamuradova and Gurbanmurat Rustemov successfully started at the international chess tournament "ASF Cup in memory of M.M. Botvinnik", which takes place in Moscow from August 23 to 28.
After two rounds, Myahri Agamuradova leads the standings in the under-14 category, having won over rivals from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the first round she defeated Ayana Abayeva, and in the second round she defeated Malika Zhapparbekova.
Gurbanmurat Rustemov won in the first round against Agshin Alizada from Azerbaijan, who is also a FIDE master on the official chess platform FIDE Online Arena. In the second round, he lost to a strong rival from Kyrgyzstan - the silver medalist of the Asian Championship among schoolchildren under 13 Emir Sharshanbekov.
The competition includes two round-robin tournaments - among boys and girls under 14 years old (born in 2009 and younger). Each tournament is attended by 9 participants representing Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The tournament is traditional and named after the sixth world chess champion, international grandmaster Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik, who founded this tournament back in 1952.
For the Turkmen players, the performances at this tournament were quite successful. For example, in 2011 in the same tournament the FIDE master Mergen Kakabaev won the gold medal, and in 2014 the FIDE master Azat Nurmammedov won the silver medal. Well, in the team tournament in 2018, the team consisting of Azat Annageldiyev, Emin Kuliyev, Azim Sariyev and Merjen Batyrova, led by the captain international grandmaster Maksat Atabayev, won a bronze medal.
