President Tokayev praises national women’s chess team for winning silver medal in Chess Olympiad

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev congratulated the women’s national chess team on taking second place in the FIDE Chess Olympiad Budapest 2024. The women scored eight wins, two draws and one loss. They successfully outplayed the strongest opponents from the U.S. and Poland, losing only one point to India.

«This is an outstanding success for the Kazakh chess school and its brilliant disciples. I wish our sportswomen continue to reach new heights,» Tokayev posted on X (formerly known as Twitter).

According to the Kazakhstan Chess Federation (Kazchess), the women’s national team emerged with a winning streak by outplaying the teams from Uruguay, Finland, Austria and Serbia. The first slip happened in the match against India, the tournament’s favorite and the bronze medalist of last year’s contest. After that, the winning streak resumed when Kazakhstani chess players outplayed teams from Cuba, Azerbaijan, France and Poland, emerging as a frontrunner after the ninth round.

In the decisive 10th and 11th rounds, the athletes held the top position in the ranking by tying with the teams from Georgia and the U.S.

In the 11th round, after Meruert Kamalidenova lost out to Carissa Yip, a strong player from the U.S., the Kazakhstani team’s leader, Bibisara Assaubayeva, restored hope, outplaying U.S. player Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova. Meanwhile, Alua Nurman finished the match against Alice Lee, an American chess player, with a rook-and-pawn endgame. Xeniya Balabayeva scored a draw playing against Irina Krush (the U.S.). This outcome secured second place for the Kazakhstani national team.

«The silver medal earned by our national women’s team at the FIDE Chess Olympiad is an outstanding achievement, proving the strength of the Kazakhstani chess mastery to the world. Despite the very young age, intense psychological pressure and a marathon of eleven matches, the team became one of the best, beating competitors from 169 countries. I am proud of the team, grateful to their coaches and parents and very happy that we have achieved this result in just two years. The accumulated experience and the desire to win are good signs proving that we will have a gold medal someday. Although we may consider ourselves victorious already,» said the president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, Timur Turlov.

The young women’s national team (average rating: 2,373, No. 10) trained with the grandmaster duo captain Pavel Kotsur, and coach Alexander Moiseenko was represented by 20-year-old IM Bibisara Assaubayeva (2,482), 19-year-old IM Meruert Kamalidenova (2,352), 18-year-old WIM Xeniya Balabayeva (2,335) and WIM Amina Kairbekova (2,243) and the youngest, 17-year-old Olympiad debutant WIM Alua Nurman (2,324).

This silver made history as the team made it from the most recent 5th place earned in 2022 in Chennai. The previous standings were 11th in Batumi in 2018 and 37th in Baku in 2016.

Earlier this year, head of the International Chess Federation Arkady Dvorkovich highly appreciated the idea of introducing chess into the education system of Kazakhstan, along with the training of athletes.