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I would like to start with expressing big thanks to Andrey Mirzaakhmedov and his son Viacheslav, who were responsible for the logistics and web coverage of the championship, for their invaluable help in preparing this report.
The championship was held in hotel Poytaht, located right in the centre of Tashkent. The word means “Capital”. It’s a big hotel, with a large courtyard and a swimming pool.
No, the entrance is not crooked, it’s just the barrel distortion from my wide angle lens which I had to use in order to get the whole building in. The banner reads “Welcome all participants of the tournament”.
Google Earth is great. You see the hotel in the circle, just across the road from the Amir Timur Square, which is the central point of Tashkent.
The opening ceremony, after the official part, turned into a truly magnificent festive event, with lots of dancing and singing.
Delivering the opening speech: the Chairman of the Uzbek Agency for Information and Communications Mr. Abdulla Aripov, who is also the President of the Chess Federation of Uzbekistan.
Towards the evening, players and their teams were seated around the swimming pool to watch the performance of singers and dancers.
Uzbek dancing is beautiful. And when performed by such dancers, it is twice as beautiful.
This one was so carried away with dancing that she nearly bumped into me here.
It was gradually getting dark, and with poor illumination and moving subjects, it was getting more of a challenge for my new camera, a Pentax K10D. No, it doesn’t offer the “the pleasures of a 72x zoom lens” of the Panasonic DMC-FZ8 Meri Grigoryan-Lyell used for her beautiful report, but it does offer instantaneous focusing and outstanding low light performance.
A Uzbek pop singer
Another Uzbek pop star
Players from Iran doing mobile phone video recording as the singer sang a Persian song
The show was managed by beautiful Nilufar who is a TV presenter at Sports Channel.
There was a lot of fighting, uncompromising chess. Players from Afghanistan, Iran, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan all experienced proud wins, bitter losses, some joy and some disappointment… business as usual in chess.
Woops, never needed one of these before, but this time I had to obtain an accreditation
card in order to be able to access tournament halls.
Young female player from Iran, Haleh Golipour
And the only player from Afghanistan Ahmad Wais. His country’s ambassador came in person to support him. See next picture.
Chief arbiter Husan Turdaliev in discussion with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Afghanistan to Uzbekistan H.E. Abdul Samad.
The only female player of the U18 boys’ section, WGM Harika Dronavalli of India, 2476, came eighth
Harika & Jam: it was really nice to meet her in person. I found Harika a very nice and friendly young lady. Unfortunately, she did not perform her best at this tournament. Better luck next time, Harika!
A young Indian player who drew attention of many in the boys’ section. They would cheekily ask me to email them her picture, these youngsters… Of course I had to refuse.
Aigerim Rysbaeva, rated 2170, the winner from Kazakhstan.
My friend’s daughter Nafisa Muminova, 2138, came fourth
Indian coaches talking while their students are playing
Silver medal: Homayoon Toufighi of Iran, rated 2365
Guliskhan Nakhbayeva, another winner from Kazakhstan
Yulduz Hamrakulova, Uzbekistan
Three beauties: Miss Chess Tajikistan, Miss Chess Kyrgyzstan, Miss Chess Kazakhstan
Andrey Kvon from Tashkent, the winner of the new Under 18 champion of Asia
A board outside was always available for casual blitz. This is me (White) blitzing
with one of the coaches.
Little girls at the closing ceremony waiting to deliver medals to their winners
| 1 | Nakhbayeva, Guliskhan | KAZ | 2024 | 7.5 |
| 2 | Bhakti, Kulkarni | IND | 2112 | 7 |
| 3 | Padmini, Rout | IND | 2212 | 6.5 |
| 4 | Pon, N Krithika | IND | 2072 | 6.0 |
| 5 | Esonboeva, Gulruhsor | UZB | 6.0 | |
| 6 | Uthra, P | IND | 2063 | 5.5 |
| 7 | Qurbonbaeva, Sarvinoz | UZB | 5 |
The Under 16 girls Champion of Asia: Guliskhan Nakhbayeva, Kazakhstan
Girls under 16: Kulkarni Bhakti, India, took silver, Rout Padmini, India, bronze
The boys under 16 section was a complete Indian triumph:
| 1 | Adhiban, B | IND | 2368 | 8.5 |
| 2 | Nitin, S | IND | 2273 | 7 |
| 3 | Sethuraman, S.P | IND | 2332 | 6 |
| 4 | Mustafaev, Jamshid | UZB | 2232 | 6 |
| 5 | Faizulaev, Akmal | UZB | 6 | |
| 6 | Darini, Pouria | IRI | 2183 | 5.5 |
| 7 | Shyam, Nikil P | IND | 2375 | 5.5 |
| 8 | Sultanov, Izzatilla | UZB | 5.5 |
The Under 16 boys Champion of Asia: B. Adhiban of India
Under 16 silver went to S. Nitin, bronze to S. P. Sethuraman, both from India
| 1 | Rysbayeva, Aigerim | KAZ | 2170 | 6.5 |
| 2 | Hamrakulova, Yulduz | UZB | 2182 | 6 |
| 3 | Kiran, Manisha Mohanty | IND | 2204 | 6 |
| 4 | Muminova, Nafisa | UZB | 2138 | 6 |
| 5 | Gevorgyan, Irina | UZB | 2085 | 5.5 |
| 6 | Danilyuk, Olga | KAZ | 2075 | 5 |
| 7 | Davletbayeva, Madina | KAZ | 2165 | 4.5 |
| 8 | Nodirjanova, Nodira | UZB | 2094 | 4.5 |
| 9 | Preethi, R | IND | 2115 | 4.5 |
| 10 | Baymuradova, Sevara | UZB | 4.5 | |
| 11 | Lakshmi, Sahiti P | IND | 2134 | 4 |
| 12 | Sivasankari, P | IND | 2070 | 4 |
The Under 18 girls Champion of Asia: Aigerim Rysbayeva of Kazakhstan
| 1 | Kvon, Andrey | UZB | 2360 | 7.5 |
| 2 | Toufighi, Homayoon | IRI | 2365 | 7 |
| 3 | Zhumabayev, Rinat | KAZ | 2425 | 6.5 |
| 4 | Djuraev, Sokhib | TJK | 2297 | 6 |
| 5 | Navin, Kanna T.u. | IND | 2280 | 5.5 |
| 6 | Kasyan, Aleksandr | UZB | 2267 | 5.5 |
| 7 | Pak, Evgeniy | UZB | 2238 | 5.5 |
| 8 | Harika, Dronavalli | IND | 2476 | 5 |
| 9 | Sadeh, Shahin | IRI | 2178 | 5 |
| 10 | Lalith, Babu M.R. | IND | 2320 | 5 |
| 11 | Amanov, Zhanibek | KAZ | 2277 | 5 |
| 12 | Nuretdinov, Igor | TJK | 5 |
Under 18 boys Champion of Asia: Andrey Kvon, Uzbekistan
Boys under 18 silver: Homayoon Toufighi, Iran, bronze: Rinat Zhumabayev, Kazakhstan
Tashkent is divided into two parts: Eski shahar (Old City) and Yangi shahar (New City). In the old city, you will see pure Uzbek life, with elements of Islamic and rich traditional culture.
This is the Kukeldash Madrassah (former Islamic school), an architectural pearl from the 18th century.
A mosque in the Old City
A shop of craftsmen in the Old City. These guys make cradles for the newborn.
Another craft shop – Uzbek musical instruments.
And of course, the key feature of the Old City – the oriental bazaar. You will see many kind and friendly people here, as well as some swindlers sometimes. This guy belongs to the first category, of course. He was offering me to taste his melon, which I did, and it was delicious! By the way, at this bazaar you can have as much melon and watermelon as you can eat right there, free of charge.
And the New City… This is the Senate, the upper chamber of Oliy Majlis,
the Uzbek parliament.
A bank building at night
Tashkent is truly a multicultural city where many cultures and religions coexist in peace. This is the biggest Orthodox Church in Central Asia, located in the heart of Tashkent.
The monument of Amir Timur, known in the West as Tamerlane.
The Navoi Theatre
The chess theme is quite hot these days. They use it everywhere for advertisement. And the main chess personality of Uzbekistan is, of course, our own Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
The beautiful view from my office window: Hotel Intercontinental and the TV
tower.
This is the view when you scale the tower
These are real pictures shots from the tower. Not models, or computer graphics.
I hope to write more reports and articles on interesting chess events wherever
I go. Until then, cheers.
Jamshid.
About
the authorJamshid Begmatov works full time as a consultant at the European Commission’s office in Tashkent. His hobbies include chess and photography. He has also done numerous TV presentations and written articles on chess. Previous ChessBase articles include:
