At the tournament of the Cup of Association of Chess Federations in memory of Michael Botvinnik among the strongest chess players of the CIS countries under 14 which took place in Moscow our compatriot Azat Nurmamedov who yielded to the winner - Moldavian Ivan Skitsko just all half-point, became a silver prize-winner. Master of FIDE, schoolboy of the Ashgabat chess and draughts school Azat Nurmamedov - the champion of Asia-2016 among juniors under 13 and silver prize-winner of the world championship. The school was established 35 years ago, but in the past two years Turkmen chess players became world champions in a number of age categories. So, in December of last year this title in the category under 17 was won by Saparmurat Atabaev, Bagul Ezizova became world champion twice: at first in the age category under 7, then – under 9. Schoolchildren of the school, among whom - seven grand masters, constant prize-winners of championships of Asia and other international tournaments. Chess tournaments of the ""Ashgabad-2017"" in which our sportsmen won three bronze medals are fresh in our memory. This is a high achievement for the national team which did not receive medals of the Asian games before. The awards won in persistent competition against opponents of high international level, allow to highly appreciating the level of development of chess in the country as a whole and Ashgabat chess school, in particular. Five from six prize-winners of the Asian Games - its schoolchildren. Foreign experts entered the trainer's staff of preparation of our sportsmen for the Asian games - Alexey Dreyev (Russian Federation) and Sergey Tivyakov (the Netherlands) as well. On the high level of Turkmen chess players, says also the fact that all medals were won by the team scores. Indeed, to prepare the team - it is more a difficult task than to train one strong sportsman. A huge attention given to the development of chess in Turkmenistan, has allowed to get this sports discipline out to a qualitatively new level. The Ashgabat chess and draughts school received two years ago a new comfortable building in which necessary conditions for development of skills of this ancient intellectual game which enjoys a great popularity in the world sports community are created. As headmaster of the school Shohrat Muratkuliev marks, the quality of training is raised by computerisation of classes, a special software. Teachers of the school try to be well informed with recent trends in world chess. They are trained to perfection and possession of traditional game combinations, which have for many years now, been the «gold assets» of chess art. They also study the history of games at school. The well-known expert of the past, the Turkmen who lived at the late 9th and early 10th centuries was one of the brightest chess players of the past (then this sport was called shatranj and differed from modern chess with distinct rules) famous as-Suli. He is known to be the first informal world champion and his record has a forty-year victory in competitions with the strongest chess players of that time. As-Suli became famous for his skill in this intellectual game in the scientific capital of the civilised world of that time - Bagdad, wrote many treatises devoted to game shatranj. Over many puzzles which were developed by him then, modern chess players still rack their brains. At school there are two spacious halls for organisation of tournaments of any level. At the service of students an extensive library in which more than thousand editions is held, it constantly replenishes its hold with new materials. At present at the school under the supervision of the strongest teachers of the country more than five hundred pupils at the age from 6 to 26 master skills. One of preparation stages are qualifying tournaments. In the competitions which passed at the school within two weeks, almost a hundred chess players took part. They contested for third, second and first categories. Especially the contest for the third category was interesting; the youngest chess players here participate. Despite age, they very thoughtfully concern game, try to use to the full the received knowledge and to apply various combinations. 13 young chess players in two groups managed to secure necessary quantity of points for the third category. With the qualifying standard for the second category six participants could cope. The strongest chess players competed for the first category. 4 sportsmen could secure the sufficient scores and reach the chess elite. Chess is also interesting with the fact that the game can be learned at any age. And if this intellectual sport is interesting for you, the doors of the Ashgabat chess and draughts school are always open.