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From July 5 to 29, 2025, the FIDE Women's World Chess Cup is being held in Batumi (Georgia). The tournament is attended by 107 of the world's strongest chess players, among whom for the first time in history there is a representative of Turkmenistan - the 19-year-old leader of the national women's team, FIDE Master among women Lala Shokhradova (FIDE rating - 2135).

Shokhradova won the right to participate thanks to the triumph of the women's team of Turkmenistan at the 45th World Chess Olympiad 2024 in Budapest (Hungary), where our chess players took first place in the team category C.

Unlike many chess tournaments, the World Cup is held according to the Olympic system (knockout) and lasts 7 rounds. In each round, two classical games are played (90 min + 30 min after move 40 + 30 sec per move). If the points are equal, a tie-break is held: rapid (15 minutes + 10 seconds per move), then blitz (5+3 and 3+2) until the winner is determined.

In the first round, the opponent of our compatriot, seeded under number 90, was the international master and woman grandmaster from India Agrawal Vantika (23 years old, rating - 2388, 39th seed in the tournament).

The Women's World Chess Cup is a relatively new tournament organized by FIDE similar to the Men's World Cup. The first Women's Cup tournament was held in 2021, when Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia) won. The 2023 World Cup was also won by a Russian woman, Alexandra Goryachkina. The World Cup serves as a qualifier for the Candidates Tournament, the winner of which plays a match for the title of World Champion.

Let us remind you that the FIDE Men's World Cup will be held from October 31 to November 27, 2025 (the venue is being specified). Turkmenistan will be represented by the leader of the men's national team, International Grandmaster Saparmurat Atabayev. His participation became possible thanks to the outstanding success of the men's team at the 2024 World Chess Olympiad in Budapest, where the team won the "small gold" in Category B and took 24th place in the overall standings.

In 2015, at the Men's World Cup in Baku (Azerbaijan), Turkmenistan was already represented by International Grandmaster Yusup Atabayev. In the first round, he showed an impressive fight, losing in a tense tie-break (total score 3:5) to three-time World Rapid Chess Champion, Grandmaster from Russia Alexander Grischuk.

The Chess Federation of Turkmenistan is proud of its athletes and wishes Lale Shokhradova victories in Batumi, and Saparmurat Atabayev - successful preparation for the November World Cup. Your achievements are a new stage in the development of the chess school of Turkmenistan!

ORIENT

Photo: The Chess Federation of Turkmenistan