9-year-old Aya Bayramova from Turkmenistan won a bronze medal at the World Blitz Chess Championship among cadets (children under 12 years old).

The prestigious tournament, held from April 26 to 28 in the Albanian city of Durres, brought together 375 young chess players from 43 countries, reports the press service of the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan.

A student of the honored coach of Turkmenistan, Guljahan Ovlyakuliyeva, demonstrated a brilliant game, scoring 7.5 points out of 11 possible in the girl’s category under 10 years old. Aya lost only to the tournament winner Alisa Henrietta Junker from Russia (10 points) and Indian Sharvaanika A.S. (9 points).

Another representative of Turkmenistan in the same category, Dunya Ruslanova, was in the lead, but an unfortunate mistake in the last round did not allow her to rise above 7th place. In total, 41 girls participated in the age group up to 10 years.

In the category of girls under 8 years old in blitz, the fifth place of 7-year-old Aylar Hemrayeva should be noted.

The majority of Turkmen chess players finished at the top of the tournament tables, confirming the progress of the national chess school. The Chess Federation of Turkmenistan associates the development of children's chess with an increase in tournaments, the introduction of the FIDE rating, digitalization and the growing motivation of young athletes to represent the country at the world level.

Detailed tournament statistics can be found at the following links:

• blitz
• rapid