The first stage of the new chess tournament, the Turkmenistan Grand Prix, was held at the Ashgabat Chess and Checkers School, bringing together 130 participants. The tournament, established by the National Chess Federation, is aimed at providing chess players from all over the country with playing practice, expanding opportunities for reaching the top league, and popularizing chess among the population.

The Grand Prix is a series of six stages that will be held in all five regions and the capital of Turkmenistan. At each stage, participants will score points for the overall standings. The final stage will be held in the capital, where the winners in the open and women's categories will receive direct tickets to the 2026 Turkmenistan Premier League, which determines the composition of the national team for international competitions.

The Ashgabat stage featured 86 participants in the open category and 44 in the women's category. In the open category the first place was taken by a student of the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Education and Sports Amanmuhammet Hommadov (rating 2251), who scored 8 points out of 9 possible.

In the women's category the winner was a 12th-grade student of Ashgabat Secondary School No. 17 Enesh Arazmedova (FIDE rating - 1811), a participant in the World Chess Olympiad in Budapest. Despite being seeded sixth, she scored 7.5 points and improved her rating by 96 points.

One of the technological innovations of the tournament was the online broadcast of games in real time - for the first time in the history of Turkmen chess. In test mode 7 boards were broadcast in the open category and 3 in the women's category.

The next stage of the Turkmenistan Chess Grand Prix is planned to be held in May 2025 in the Balkan region.

The Turkmen sporty newspaper