Bulgarian chess players recorded Tuesday a successful first day at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Ivan Cheparinov is one of the leaders in the men's ranking and Nurgyul Salimova - in the women's. Gergana Peycheva achieved victory over former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk.
In the men's chess tournament, where 202 chess players from all over the world participate, five players have 4.5 points each after the first five rounds and divide the first position. One of them is Cheparinov and the others are multiple world champion and world ranking leader Magnus Carlsen of Norway, China's Yu Yangyi and India's Vidit Gujrathi and Arjun Erigaisi.
Cheparinov started the tournament with three victories - over Raymond Song of Taiwan, Guha Mitrabha of India and Russian Igor Lysyj.
In the fourth round, the Bulgarian drew with Bharath Subramaniam of India, but in the fifth round he got back on the winning track with a success over Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport, who is playing for Romania.
In the women's competition, the 20-year-old Salimova recorded four wins in her four games tops the ranking with 4 points. The event includes 117 participants from all over the world. The only other chess player with the same score so far is China's Zhu Jiner, who will be Salimova's opponent in the fifth round, as their match will open the programme on Wednesday.
On her way to the top of the standings, Salimova won over Uzbekistan's Hulkar Tohirjonova, Americans Jennifer Yu and Atousa Pourkashiyan, and Mongolia's Turmunkh Munkhzul.
The 2012 world champion Antoaneta Stefanova is 22nd in the provisional standings with 3 points (3 wins, 1 defeat).
The other two Bulgarians - Nadya Toncheva (2 wins, 2 losses) and Gergana Peycheva (2 wins, 2 losses) are 59th and 60th respectively with 2 points.
The men's rapid chess tournament has 13 rounds, while the women's tournament has 11 rounds. The prize money of the two tournaments is USD 350,000 and USD 150,000 respectively.
/MR/
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