The first stage of the Chess Grand Prix, a completely new tournament organized by the Chess Federation of Turkmenistan, has started in Ashgabat. This unique competition, which began on March 17, is attended by 127 players: 83 in the open category and 44 in the women's category.

The series of six tournaments is held in a classic format, will cover all five velayats of Turkmenistan and will be held in five cities: Ashgabat, Turkmenbashi, Dashoguz, Turkmenabat and Mary. The Ashgabat stage marked the start of this prestigious series of competitions.

A special feature of the tournament is that it is the first time in the chess history of Turkmenistan that online broadcasting of games in real time begins. Each move that chess players make at the board is immediately converted into digital format using special sensors built into the chess pieces and the board and transmitted to online platforms using the DGT LiveChess application.

The Lichess platform, through which the broadcast of this tournament is conducted, is considered the most popular among chess fans for watching games of various tournaments from all over the world live.

Links to the tournament broadcasts:

Open category: https://lichess.org/broadcast/gran-pri-tkf-ashgabat-open/round-1/K58aXeBU

Women's category: https://lichess.org/broadcast/gran-pri-tkf-ashgabat-women/round-1/INot86xN

And the results of the games, the tournament table can be followed on Chess results at this link:

https://chess-results.com/tnr1137131.aspx?lan=11

The Ashgabat stage of the Grand Prix series will end on March 21.