In Oskemen, the capital of East Kazakhstan Province near the borders with Russia and Mongolia, a chess festival is currently taking place (July 20–30), featuring three open tournaments: the Masters, the Challengers, and a general Open. All three events are played over nine rounds using the Swiss system and FIDE time control (90 minutes plus a 30-second increment).
The organizer is KazChess, with support from the provincial government (Akimat) of East Kazakhstan. The tournament is sponsored by the Kazakh company Freedom Holding, which has provided a generous total prize fund of 100,000 USD.
The Masters is particularly strong, with nearly 20 grandmasters among the 67 participants. The most prominent names include Richard Rapport, the only player rated above 2700 and the top seed, as well as Arkadij Naiditsch and former European Champion Anton Demchenko.
After four rounds, a leading group of four players has emerged, all with 3.5 points. Among them is Richard Rapport, as well as Zeinab Sultanbek. The 21-year-old began the tournament with a forfeit win but then scored 2.5 points from the following games at the board. In round five, she will face Richard Rapport.
Arkadij Naiditsch suffered a loss in the first round against 16-year-old Indian player Mayank Chakraborty and has had to fight his way back up the standings since then.
The idea behind the tournament is to promote tourism in the region. Oskemen, founded in 1720 as a Russian border post, is the largest city in East Kazakhstan, with a population of around 330,000. The largest ethnic group is Russian, making up 58 percent of the population, followed by Kazakhs. The third-largest group consists of residents of German descent. This can be traced back to World War II, when a prisoner-of-war camp — Camp 45, Ust-Kamenogorsk (the Russian name of the city) — was located here for German POWs.
About 300 kilometers west of Ust-Kamenogorsk, the Soviet Union conducted approximately 500 nuclear tests between 1949 and 1989 at the Semipalatinsk Test Site. Radioactive clouds occasionally drifted over Ust-Kamenogorsk, leading to numerous deaths from radiation exposure. The public was not informed, and the number of victims was kept secret.
Öskemen, or Ust-Kamenogorsk, is also the birthplace of many prominent ice hockey players of Russian, Kazakh, and German heritage.
Standings after round 4
| 1 | WIM | Sultanbek, Zeinep | 2067 | 3,5 | 9 | |
| 2 | GM | Grebnev, Aleksey | 2582 | 3,5 | 8,5 | |
| 3 | GM | Rapport, Richard | 2715 | 3,5 | 5,5 | |
| 4 | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. | 2554 | 3,5 | 5 | |
| 5 | IM | Agmanov, Zhandos | 2483 | 3 | 8,5 | |
| 6 | IM | Stribuk, Artiom | 2468 | 3 | 7,5 | |
| 7 | GM | Atabayev, Saparmyrat | 2505 | 3 | 7 | |
| 8 | GM | Goganov, Aleksey | 2516 | 3 | 7 | |
| 9 | GM | Narayanan, S L | 2597 | 3 | 6,5 | |
| 10 | GM | Suleymenov, Alisher | 2497 | 3 | 6,5 | |
| 11 | IM | Zverev, Lev | 2480 | 3 | 6,5 | |
| 12 | GM | Bocharov, Dmitry | 2522 | 3 | 6 | |
| 13 | GM | Lobanov, Sergei | 2548 | 3 | 6 | |
| 14 | IM | Tahbaz, Arash | 2462 | 2,5 | 8,5 | |
| 15 | WGM | Balabayeva, Xeniya | 2332 | 2,5 | 8,5 | |
| 16 | IM | Ilamparthi, A R | 2500 | 2,5 | 8 | |
| 17 | IM | Rohith, Krishna S | 2516 | 2,5 | 8 | |
| 18 | IM | Vaz, Ethan | 2429 | 2,5 | 7,5 | |
| 19 | GM | Makhnev, Denis | 2535 | 2,5 | 7,5 | |
| 20 | FM | Chinguun, Sumiya | 2415 | 2,5 | 6,5 | |
| 21 | IM | Uskov, Artem | 2500 | 2,5 | 6,5 | |
| 22 | FM | Suleimen, Ergali | 2330 | 2,5 | 6,5 | |
| 23 | Utegaliyev, Azamat | 2462 | 2,5 | 6,5 | ||
| 24 | GM | Lalit, Babu M R | 2512 | 2,5 | 6,5 | |
| 25 | IM | Ansat, Aldiyar | 2489 | 2,5 | 6 |
…67 players
