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GM Barış Esen

Barış Esen (born November 3, 1986) is a Turkish chess grandmaster. He began chess playing early in his childhood in the late 1990s. Azeri International Master Fikret Sideifzade, whom he met during a chess competition in Antalya, taught him the chess basics. After his success at the Angora Tournament held in Konya, Turkey in 2010, he was named Grand Master, earning this title as the youngest and the fourth Turkish chess player.

Esen, who has a lot of individual championships in both international and turkish field, also contributed to the Turkish National team’s best results ever in the 2015-2016 world chess olympiad (world 6th)

WGM Nafisa Muminova

Nafisa was born in 1 st of February 1990. She is the first Uzbek Woman Grandmaster. Her father introduced her to chess when she was 4 years old and she started playing chess at 9 years old.  She played on the first board for Uzbekistan women’s team in 4 chess Olympiads. Participated in the FIDE Women’s Grand prix series 2013-2014. In 2010, she became 4th in world juniors and girls championships U20.  She has been working as a chess coach since 2012. She is the co-founder of “Sky Chess” chess school in Tashkent.

GM Mert Erdoğdu

Mert Erdoğdu was born in 1979 in Izmit.  He started playing chess while he was studying at Galatasaray High School.  He earned the title of FM (Fide Master) in 2001, IM (International Master) in 2003, and GM (Grand Master) in 2017. Erdoğdu, who won Turkish Championship in 2016 also achieved considerable success in many international tournaments.  In his coaching career he holds the title of Fide trainer (Head Coach) and trained the Turkish national and many succesfull athletes who obtained degrees worldwide.

Key Achievements:

Turkish Chess Championship 1st Prize

Mediterranean Championship 1st

1st Place in the International Heviz (Hungary) Open Chess Tournament

Turkey Masters Championship 1st Prize

Turkey blitz Championship 1st Prize

Corus Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands) Qualification Tournament 2nd Place

Çanakkale Troy Festival Open Chess Tournament 1st

As well as his success in the individual tournaments he also tool place in the Turkish national team from 2000-2010, and successfully represented Turkey in chess olympiad.

FM Orkhan Eminov

Orkhan Eminov was born on October 21, 1989 in Baku. Having won many championships in Azerbaijan age groups, Eminov settled in Turkey to evaluate the coaching offers from Turkey’s important clubs and trained athletes who achieved European degrees for the national team.

Eminov, who started his university life in 2010 by winning the medical department, became the Turkey Inter-University Champion twice, keeping up with chess despite his intense education program.

Most Important Achievement:

2015 Turkish Cup Champion

WIM Zehra Topel

Topel was born on April 13, 1987 in Shumen, Bulgaria. Since 2007, she holds the FIDE title of Woman International Master (WIM). She began playing chess at the age of 8 when her mother gave zehra’s cousin a chess board as a present, and her father, who is also a chess trainer instructed her.

She won the silver medal at the 1st Mediterranean women’s championship held in Lebanon in October 2003.

Achievements

Turkish Chess Championship (Women’s)

  • 2001 U14 – champion
  • 2003 U16 – champion
  • 2007 – champion
  • 2009 – 2nd place

European Chess Championship

  • 2002 – 7th place
  • 2003 Junior – champion

Mediterranean Chess Championship

  • 2003 –   Silver
FM ALPER EFE ATAMAN

Born in 1983, Alper Efe Ataman is a FIDE-Master & FIDE-Trainer from Izmir, Turkey. He is mostly known for his works as a chess publisher and author in his country. One of his books, Instructive Chess Miniatures was published in 2016 by one of the most-esteemed chess publishers in the world, Gambit Publications (link: http://www.gambitbooks.com/books/Instructive_Chess_Miniatures.html). Ataman has experience in working with chess enthusiasts, especially at the scholastic level.

Deniz Seyhanoğlu

Deniz Seyhanoglu is a FIDE Instructor with over 12 years of experience in private tutoring, coaching chess clubs and national young teams for chess. Furthermore, he is an active sport psychologist working with young athletes in variety of sport branches including football and gymnastic.
He is the author of three chess books that are aiming to improve tactical skills of young chess players.
Deniz holds BSc degree in Psychology from Bogazici University and MSc degree in Sport Psychology from Marmara University in Turkey. He’s teaching online courses for 1000-1800 elo on chessinside.com

Ezgi Can

Ezgi was born in 1990 in Turkey. She plays chess as a hobby. She received theater training as well as taking part in various TV projects related with children. She enjoys spending time with children therefore she is delivering training to the ones who meets chess for the first time.

Beran Elçi

Born on the 29.09.1993, started chess at an early age, Beran has become an avid and accomplished chessplayer from İzmir. Due to his flight training he had to take a break for a while. But now, he is ready again and would like to share his experiences with newcomers.

“Many thanks to my teacher Grandmaster Mert Erdoğdu, who played a major role in my winning the Turkish Championship for three consecutive years and me being number two in the world twice!”

IM Can Isik
Turkey youngest international master

“Zehra was one of the most talented female masters in the national team. Although she was away from the team for a while due to her studies in London, she re-joined us successfully. She is a great talent, a great teacher. The children working with her are very lucky.”

GM Adrian Mihalcisin
Turkish Women National Team Head Coach

“Nafisa inspires many athletes in terms of her passion for chess, her naive personality and knowledge of the game. I am sure she will raise many more champions like herself.”

GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov
2004 World Chess Champion

“No matter who he works with, it is obvious that he will contribute greatly to his/her chess. I sincerely wish success to my dear friend Orkhan.”

GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov
Legendary Azerbaijani Grandmaster

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