160 medals and counting: Kazakhstan’s chess players achieve record success in 2024
Kazakh chess players across the board had a successful year in 2024, winning a record 160 medals at international tournaments organized by FIDE and the Asian Chess Federation (ACF). The total includes 55 gold, 54 silver, and 51 bronze medals, Kazinform News Agency reports.
One of the most important achievements was the women’s national team earning a silver medal at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest. The team, with an average age of 18.5 years, included players Bibisara Assaubayeva, Meruert Kamalidenova, Kseniya Balabayeva, Alua Nurman, and Amina Kairbekova. The team finished second after India led by Grandmasters Pavel Kotsur and Alexander Moiseenko.
Young players also achieved impressive results at the World Youth Chess Championships. Kazybek Nogurbek (U20), Mark Smirnov (U12), and Alanna Berikkizi (U10) won gold medals, with Alanna also making a successful debut in the adult Kazakhstan Championship final. Additionally, silver medals were earned by Khanzada Amanzhol (U12), Edgar Mamedov (U14), Aldiyar Ansat (U18), and Amina Kairbekova (U18), while Sauat Nurgaliyev (U14) took bronze. This brought Kazakhstan a record 8 medals at the World Junior Chess Championships.
President of KazChess, Timur Turlov, said, “This is a natural result of the painstaking work of the entire Kaz Chess team, carried out with the support of the country's leadership and the President personally. We continued to implement systemic measures - this year the budget for only two of our programs - support for young talents and professional sports - amounted to almost 1 billion tenge. In parallel, tournaments were held, including international ones through FIDE, the project for teaching chess in schools was expanded, and image events were organized. All this gave such a fantastic result, the creators of which were, of course, the chess players themselves. We intend to continue this pace so that Kazakhstan takes a worthy place on the world chess board.”
Kazakh juniors achieved notable success at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships, winning 9 medals in rapid chess, including gold by Alisha Bisaliyeva (G8), and 7 medals in blitz, with golds by Elnaz Kaliyakhmet (G14) and Daniyal Sapenov (O16).
At the World School Chess Championships, Kazakhstan gained 8 more champions. Aiyar Altynbek (G13) excelled in classical chess, while Arlan Mirzhanov (O9), Alimzhan Zhauynbai (O11), and Alihan Daulet (O15) won in rapid chess. Aylin Zarkym (G13), Zarina Nurgaliyeva (G15), Aldiyar Zhauynbai (O13), and Ayaulym Kaldarova (G17) claimed blitz titles.
Recently, Kazakh chess players won 10 medals at the FIDE World Youth Rapid & Blitz U14, U16, U18 Championships 2024 in Terme Čatež, Slovenia.
