Turkmen Chess Players Return from World Championship with Two Bronze Medals

From April 13 to 15, the World Rapid Chess Championship for children and youth took place in Rhodes, Greece. Turkmen chess players represented their country with honor at this prestigious international tournament, bringing home two bronze medals.

In the girls' under-8 category, Anna Charyyeva stood out by scoring 8 points out of a possible 11. The young athlete only lost to the champion from Kazakhstan, Alisha Bissaliyeva, and the silver medalist from India, Anvi Deepak, confidently securing third place. With this impressive performance, Anna proved herself among the world’s strongest chess players in her age group.

Another bronze medal was claimed by Jahan Rejepova in the girls’ under-16 category. She also scored 8 points and achieved important victories throughout the tournament. Her most notable win came in the second round against future champion Elnaz Kaliyakhmet from Kazakhstan. Despite suffering two losses in the middle of the event, Jahan regained her focus and managed to finish on the podium.

Other Turkmen representatives also performed well. In the under-18 girls’ category, Leyla Shohradova finished fifth, narrowly missing the bronze due to tie-break scores. In the under-12 category, Nurana Soyunova secured seventh place after seven rounds.

Special attention was drawn to the youngest member of the Turkmen delegation — six-year-old Hangeldi Myradov. Competing in the boys’ under-8 category, he scored 6.5 points and placed 12th out of 48 participants, demonstrating impressive and confident play.