The First Asian Championship was held in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) from 14 to 22 September 2017 in the 5-star Jannat Hotel. The opening ceremony was attended by the World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov, who paid a special visit to these competitions. Also there were executives from the Ministry of Sports, Education, Social Protection, patrons and sponsors. The prize fund of the tournament equaled USD15,000. Competitions were held under the patronage of the Chess Federation of Kyrgyzstan, the Asian Chess Federation.
Ten Asian countries and over 100 participants took part in the Championship. Among the deaf sportsmen were teams from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia and India.
The team of Kazakhstan brought to Bishkek the largest team comprising 16 participants: 4 women, 1 cadet and 11 men. Kyrgyzstan presented a team of 15 people. Competitions were held under the Swiss system in 7 rounds.
Chess players with disabilities participated separately in their categories, namely, hearing impaired, people with musculoskeletal injuries, visually impaired, as well as junior chess players under 18 year age in the said categories, and boys and girls under 12. Among the women in the deaf category, Natalia Gorokhova from Aktau became the champion of Asia, gaining 5 points out of 7, the second place was given to a chess player from India, who gained 4.5 points out of 7 (the chess player from India bypassed an athlete from Kazakhstan), bronze medal was won by another representative from Kazakhstan – Nina Zhukovskaya from Almaty. Nina Zhukovskaya scored 4.5 out of 7 points. Another participant of the tournament from Kazakhstan Sultan Kozhakhmetov showed great results, he took the first place in the hearing impaired category among young men under 18. In the overall Kazakhstan team won the largest number of medals among the deaf: 2 gold and 1 bronze. Hot contest was in the men group. The first place was taken by Tserenzhav Tumenbayar, the representative from Mongolia, the second place went to Abdullaev Bakhodur, the chess player from Tajikistan, while the third place and the bronze medal was won by Sardor Mamarajabov, the young chess player from Uzbekistan. Amangeldy Nauryzgaliyev from Almaty took the fourth place, losing points to Uzbekistan athlete who managed to gain 5 points out of 7. Also, the strongest chess players of Asia Samazhan Kettebekov, Maxim Rozhkov (Kazakhstan), Nazar Tikhonchuk (Kyrgyzstan) scored 5 points. Winners and prize-winners, as well as participants who took 4 places were awarded cash prizes. The Asian Chess Championship among disabled people was held at a high organizational level. It was resolved to conduct next such competition two years later in India.

Maxim Rozhkov,
ICCD Vice President

 

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