Leyla Shohradova retains her place in the top three at the World Chess Championship
Two rounds before the end of the World Championship among boys and girls in classical chess, FIDE master candidate Leyla Shohradova retains her place in the «top three” leaders in the category of girls under 16. Leila, who has so far scored 7 points out of 9 possible thanks to yesterday’s victory in a beautiful attacking style over Guldona Karimova, a chess player from Uzbekistan, is one point behind the duet of leaders – Russian Alexandra Shvedova (FIDE rating – 2170) and Chinese Wang Chukiao (FIDE rating – 2215). Our compatriot will have to face the last of them in a face-to-face match today in the 10th round, the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan reported.
The 45th seed at the start of the tournament with a rating of 1782, Leyla demonstrates a great game and has already raised her rating by 173 points. But its main goal, nevertheless, remains the coveted medal of the world championship. A total of 105 girls participate in this category.
Her older sister Lala (FIDE rating – 1846) also pleases with good results in the category of girls under 18. With 6.5 points, she takes 7th place after 9 rounds and raised the rating by 156 points. In the last round, Lala beat a rival from Mongolia Bat-Erdene Mungunzul (2111). Today she meets Ayan Allahverdiyeva (2152) from Azerbaijan, who is in second place with 7.5 points. And the leader in this group with 8 points out of 9 is the American grandmaster among women, Rochelle Wu (2228).
Mahri Agamyradova (1652), who performs in the under-14 category, also demonstrates good performance. Despite losing in the last round from the Chinese Jiang Tianyu (1917), with 5.5 points, Mahri is still in 26th place out of 125 participants. Mahri’s rating has now risen by 91 points.
Our young men also successfully held their last games. Amanmuhammet Hommadov (under-18 category, rating – 2055) drew with FIDE master from Austria Niko Markovits (2324) and after 9 rounds has 4.5 points in the asset. Sanjar Gaibullayev (under 16) and Gurbanmyrat Rustemov (under 14) have won and have 3.5 and 4 points, respectively.
The key role in the proper opening and psychological preparation of our chess players is played by the coaching staff, namely the honored coach Serdar Annaberdyev and the experienced chess player and coach Gurbangeldi Amangeldiyev. Before each round, after the announcement of the draw, our coaches study the opening repertoire and style of play of the opponents and select the most optimal tactics of the game against a particular opponent.
A total of 766 chess players from 80 countries participate in the World Championship.
The already played, as well as subsequent games of the tournament can be found at the following [link](](https://lichess.org/broadcast/fide-world-youth-championship-2023--g18/round-9/DutEnQzW).
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