From May 14th to 17th, chess tournaments were held in Astana at the Kazakh National Sports University: the first Turkic Teams Chess Championships 2026 and the Turkic Youth U16 Chess Olympiad 2026.
Seven national teams competed in the round-robin tournaments: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan (hosting two teams in each tournament), Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan.
Teams consisted of four regular players, one reserve, and a captain. The time control was the “new classic” 45+30 (45 minutes per game with a 30-second increment per move).
The guaranteed prize fund was 27 million tenge (approximately 54 000 dollars).
The men’s tournament attracted 13 grandmasters and 18 international masters. Grandmasters Saparmurat Atabayev (rating 2471) and Meylis Annaberdiev (rating 2425) led the Turkmenistan team.
The battle between the national teams continued until the final round. In the men’s competition, teams from Kazakhstan took first and second place, while Azerbaijan took third.
Saparmurat Atabayev took third place on board one.
In the women’s competition, Azerbaijan defended its first place (10 points), Kazakhstan took second place (9 points), and Uzbekistan took third place. The Turkmenistan women’s team took a respectable fifth place with 6 points. Lala Shokhradova took third place on board one, and Jahan Rejepova took second place on board three.
The Azerbaijani team and two Kazakhstani teams finished in the top three in the youth tournament.
Turkmen chess player Dilber Khupbyeva showed a strong result on board four, taking third place.
FIDE, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kazakhstan Chess Federation (Kazchess), the Kazakh National Sports University, and the Astana City Administration organized the tournament. The general partner was Freedom Holding Corp.
