ASTANA – Young chess champion and grand master Dinara Saduakassova is now ranked among the world’s top 30 female chess players after winning first place at the recent HD Bank Cup International Open Chess in Vietnam.
Photo credit: Honglinh Cu Đồng
“People are very hospitable and kind there. It was cold when I was leaving Astana while the weather in Ho Chi Minh City was hot. Big temperature differences, double tournaments plus a powerful lineup of players. All that was a test of endurance, training and will. But I played with success, I’ve made a serious hike in the rating and entered the world’s top 30 chess players among women,” Saduakassova told The Astana Times.
She held a simultaneous play in new Mega Silk Way shopping centre near the EXPO 2017 exhibition area on April 2. Seventy amateur chess players out of 107 got a chance to play with Saduakassova instead of 30 as planned initially and the event took four and a half hours instead of two hours.
“These sessions have always been popular among chess lovers but today the amount of people who wanted to play exceeded all expectations!” Saduakassova noted.
“It is incredible that adults showed great interest on par with children and many arrived a bit earlier to make it to the chess session. I am endlessly happy to be aware of the fact that the love for chess grows each year among Kazakh people,” she continued.
Saduakassova prefers open tournaments and playing chess with men rather than woman. According to her, men are less likely to give in to emotions.
Photo credit: Bạch Dương
For the first time, she will play in the men’s tournament April 2 to April 22.
The chess grand master said she enquired with Kazakhstan Chess Federation requesting to permit her to play at men’s championship and was happy to learn her request was granted. She believes there is no point in placing a great focus on this as she played with men before and even in Kazakhstan.
“It has been long since I have been playing chess with men at various tournaments and I do not see anything unusual about it,” Saduakassova said, according to Vesti.kz.
