Haik Martirosyan wins a thrilling race in Tashkent on tiebreak

Armenian grandmaster Haik Martirosyan won the 19th Agzamov Memorial, held in Tashkent from March 17-26. Staged in memory of Uzbekistan’s first grandmaster, the event saw Martirosyan share first place with GM Artem Uskov on points, but claim the trophy by a margin of just 0.5 points in the Buchholz tiebreak calculation. With a total $80,000 prize fund, the tournament was played as two separate 10-round Swiss events, Open A and Open B, and brought together around 330 players in a strong field that included 20 grandmasters.

The fight for the title in Open A was fiercely contested from start to finish. Artem Uskov, who turned 16 during the tournament, grabbed the spotlight by moving into sole first place after round 5 with 4.5/5. However, top seed Martirosyan responded in the next round and caught up with the young challenger. In round 7, one of the host nation’s leading players, GM Abdimalik Abdisalimov, joined the race at the top and made the standings even tighter. Round 8 proved to be the turning point: Martirosyan scored a critical win against Abdisalimov, while Uskov’s draw with Uzbek master IM Bakhrom Bakhrillaev gave the Armenian grandmaster a very valuable edge.

Going into the final round, Martirosyan led on 6.5/9, half a point ahead of four pursuers. But after he was held to a draw by Nikita Afanasiev in the closing round, the door was left open. Uskov took full advantage, defeating second seed GM Abhimanyu Puranik with the black pieces to catch the leader on points. Even so, the final standings were decided by the tiebreak criteria, and the title went to Martirosyan. Another notable detail was that both players finished the tournament undefeated. The result clearly showed just how balanced and high-level the battle at the top had been.

Just behind the top two, there was a major logjam. Six players finished only half a point behind the leaders and shared third place, with Abdimalik Abdisalimov taking the final podium spot thanks to his Buchholz advantage. There was no shortage of excitement in Open B either: Sultai Chyngyz of Kyrgyzstan and Umar Isomov of Uzbekistan both scored an impressive 8.5/10. Once again, tiebreaks proved decisive, and Chyngyz secured first place with the better Buchholz score. While the Agzamov Memorial once again highlighted the rising energy of Central Asian chess, Uskov’s performance in particular, along with Martirosyan’s solid play under pressure, was among the tournament’s most talked-about storylines.