The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Turkmenistan will host the International Exhibition and Fair “KIDS EXPO: Everything for Children” from August 19 to 22. The key event will be a large-scale chess program.
International grandmasters and world junior champions—Darmen Sadvakasov, First Vice President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, and Ilaha Kadymova, Secretary General of the Turkic Chess Association and Women’s Grandmaster—will arrive in the capital. The renowned chess players will conduct a series of exclusive master classes for the women’s and junior national teams of Turkmenistan.
The exhibition’s central sporting event will be the Kids Expo Chess Cup 2026 International Rapid and Blitz Tournament. An interactive “Chess Island” will be available to all exhibition guests, where everyone can learn the basic rules of the game in half an hour, participate in quizzes with prizes, and take memorable photos with giant chess pieces. One of the program’s most intriguing shows will be a simultaneous blindfold chess exhibition, during which an experienced master will play games without looking at the board.
An important part of the business agenda will be the international roundtable discussion “Chess, Youth, Education, and International Cooperation,” organized as part of the FIDE Year of Chess in Education.
The heads of national federations from 11 countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia, together with the leadership of the International School Chess Federation, will discuss systematic practices for integrating chess into school curricula in the region. Timur Turlov, President of the International School Chess Federation and the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, emphasized that thanks to active government support for sports in Turkmenistan, the Ashgabat forum will provide a powerful impetus for the development of children’s chess and the strengthening of international sports integration.
