LUKOIL’s team took 2nd place at a major chess tournament in Uzbekistan.

Ralif Nigmatullin

Сhess originally hails from ancient India and has grown into a major hobby for millions of people of all ages worldwide. It’s variously regarded as a form of play, sport, art and philosophy. Indeed, few games have as big of an impact on one’s development as chess.

On March 25, the Republican Specialized Youth Chess School in Tashkent, Uzbekistan held its 13th annual chess tournament. Various diplomatic missions and international organizations that are represented locally competed for the top prize. These included the staff of 22 embassies, three international offices and three teams from Uzbekistan’s own Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In total participants hailed from 28 different countries.

The event was jointly organized by the Uzbek Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic service and the country’s Chess Federation and was but one among many regularly held cultural and athletic events that have become popular among the diplomatic corps in Tashkent.

Following a random draw to determine competitors, participants took their places at the chess tables. The skill and talent in the room was obvious after a few minutes, especially as many of them came with experience from previous tournaments. Various team’s scores were tallied up based on individual results using the World Chess Federation’s Swiss seven-round system.

In the end LUKOIL Uzbekistan’s team, which consisted of Senior Measuring, Automation and IT Specialist Ilday Akhmedov and Chief Logistics Specialist Donyer Zakirov, took a very respectable 2nd place.

For the first time in the tournament’s history, the children of participants could take part in their own tournament. Twenty-two youngsters took up the opportunity, and LUKOIL showed even better results there: 12-year-old Muslim, son of LUKOIL Senior Accountant Makhshura Ortikova, took the top prize.