12/26/2023 – From December 13 to 23, the Kazakhstan Chess Championship took place in Astana. After 13 rounds of play in the open, five players were tied for first place. Following a rapid tiebreak, 15-year-old Aldiyar Ansat emerged victorious. Menawhile, Ksenia Balabaeva obtained outright victory in the 10-player single round-robin. Balabaeva obtained a remarkable 7½/9 score. | Photos: Kazakhstan Chess Federation

7/9/2023 – Kazakhstan, host of the World Championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, has a lively and thriving chess scene and continues to organise attractive tournaments. The Uralsk Open (20-29 July) and the World Schools Team Championships in Aktau (3-8 August) are in the pipeline, but below is a report on the recently concluded Aktobe Open, which took place from 19-28 June and was won by Iranian grandmaster Daneshwar Bardiya. | Photo: The main square of Aktobe | Photo: Kazakhstan Travel

4/15/2023 – Organized by the Bibisara Assaubayeva Foundation and the National Lottery of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Satty Zhuldyz (“Lucky Stars”) Rapid and Blitz Chess Tournament is set to take place on April 20-25. The likes of Vladimir Kramnik, Hou Yifan and Levon Aronian will be joined by a host of rising stars, including Bibisara Assaubayeva, Vincent Keymer and Arjun Erigaisi.

12/25/2022 – The young Uzbek team winning this year’s Olympiad came as a pleasant surprise, but it is not an isolated example in the recent shift of world chess power. Uzbek boys, Kazakh girls, Azeri youth, Chinese, Indian and Iranian young phenoms ever more frequently lit the chess sky. What do their countries have in common? They all once lined the Silk Road.

6/17/2016 – The "Eurasian Blitz Cup" in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city, might well be one of the strongest blitz tournament ever. Players such as Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Hou Yifan and many others will play 22 rounds Swiss for a prize-fund of USD 100.000. The tournament begins on Saturday!

6/7/2016 – Over the next few weeks, starting tomorrow, there will be two closed elite Rapid and Blitz events in Paris and London as has been announced. However, this is not the only top-notch action to come as the Eurasian Blitz Cup has been announced for June 17-20 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, open to all players rated over 2300 (2200 for women) with 22 rounds and a massive $100 thousand prizefund!

8/5/2015 – Sometimes life makes it easy by making it clear to a person where their biggest talent lies, and sometimes it does not. Imagine being gifted with skills to compete in artistic gymnastics meets, musical talent to aspire to be an artist, or chess, and no doubt others that were never explored. Here is a portrait of the lovely multi-talented prodigy from Kazakhstan.