Kazakhstani chess player wins bronze at Asian Chess Championship

Kazakhstani chess player Alisher Suleimenov (FIDE rating 2463) won the bronze medal at the Asian Continental Chess Championship, which was held in Almaty.

The final, ninth round of the championship was held on June 11 at the Sports Palace named after Baluan Sholak. The title of the chess champion of Asia went to Uzbek Grandmaster Shamsiddin Vokhidov (FIDE rating 2583), who scored the highest number of points – seven. The silver medal went to Iranian Grandmaster Bardiya Daneshvar (FIDE rating 2555) with 6.5 points, and the bronze medal went to Kazakhstani chess player Alisher Suleimenov (FIDE rating 2463), who also scored 6.5 points.

The Asian Continental Chess Championship in Almaty started on June 3 and gathered chess players from 18 countries. The prize fund of the event amounted to $100,000 with a $10,000 prize for first place, $8,000 for second place, and $7,000 for third. In other words, the Kazakhstani chess player outperformed rivals from 15 countries.

The championship was organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan in conjunction with the Asian Chess Federation and the Kazakhstan Chess Federation (KCF), all with the support of the Almaty city administration. The general partner of the tournament was Freedom Holding Corp.

In early June, Timur Turlov, president of KCF and CEO of Freedom Holding Corp. said that the federation is planning to create a new Kazakhstani chess tournament and promote corporate chess in the country. According to Turlov, another major international chess competition among schools will be held in Kazakhstan in August. Therefore, the overall load on KCF in terms of tournaments and competitions is already quite large.