You may remember that two years ago we interviewed Tagir and his coach from Kyrgyzstan. Their infectious personalities meant we wanted to say hello again this time around. Turns out, chess is booming in Kyrgyzstan and once again do they have juniors playing in both the Open and Women’s team. So on a cloudy morning in Batumi, we caught up with 16 year old Ruslan Sezbekov, 17 year old Begimay Zairbek and coach Talant Mamytov in their hotel lobby and asked them about their dreams.
Ruslan, currently a CM with a rating of 2160, tells us he is the second in a family of nine. All his siblings play chess and are a true chess family. In fact his eight year old sister, Sezdbekova Aizhan, won 1st place in the U8 category at the Asean Championships in Thailand last July.
Ruslan played his first tournament internationally in Sri Lanka in 2013, which is where is also obtained his CM title.
Begimay played at the Olympiad in Baku two years ago for the women’s team, which was her first international tournament.
So what are some of your goals and dreams?
Ruslan – I would like to become a GM one day, maybe even world champion, but I would definitely like to make chess my profession.
Click on the board to see David’s annotations on Ruslan’s game in round 1 against Senegal. Ruslan won the game with the eccentric Budapest Gambit.
Begimay – I would like to become a WGM.
At this point coach Mamytov speaks up and states that she has a very strong character, never giving up. At this Olympiad, she has currently scored 2.5 out of 3 games, the draw against much stronger Armenia. That is indeed an incredible score!
What is the Junior league like in Kyrgyzstan?
Begimay begins to explain that the number of girls playing is significantly reduced from the U16 categories. While there may be over 60 girls playing in the U10 or U12 sections, by the time you get to U16 or U18, there are only 5 or 6 girls left. It is difficult to explain why this is.
There is however, not a problem with the number of players in general. There seems to be continuous growth and many chess schools have opened. There is a real effort to get chess as part of the curriculum, so who knows what the future may hold. Parents think chess is a great sport for their children to get involved in and train their brains at the same time!
Who is your favourite chess player of all times?
Ruslan – Kasparov without a doubt. He has amazing games and an incredible rating of over 2800.
Begimay – I don’t have one favourite, there are so many amazing chess players; Magnus Carlsen, Kasparov, Karpov and of course Hui Yifan.
Have you got any advice for our Australian Juniors?
Begimay – Make sure you love chess! Love what you do!
Ruslan – 99% of your achievements will be due to hard work, only 1% is talent. Work hard and achieve your dreams!
At the end of the interview Coach Talant gifted us a banner as a token of appreciation. These guys are just super nice!
