Asian Chess Championship for boys and girls

by ChessBase
7/18/2007 – From 27 June to 08 July Tashkent hosted the Asian Youth Chess Championship 2007 for boys and girls under 16 and 18. It was a good time, perfect organization, splendid venue, strong players – everything you need for a great chess tournament. Jamshid Begmatov has a truly monumental collection of photos and impressions to share. Give an Uzbek a camera and this is what you get.

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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 Venue

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

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.

The Tournament

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

And the winners…

Girls under 16 top results

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:

Boys under 16 top results

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

Girls under 18 top results

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


Under 18 girls: Silver Yulduz Hamrakulova, Uzbekistan, Bronze: Manisha Mohanty Kiran, India

Boys under 18 top results

 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

A tour of Tashkent

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.

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About the author

Jamshid 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:


Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

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