Nurgyul Salimova: My big goal is to be a women's world champion
“When I was little, I always said and was convinced that I would become a women’s world champion. Over time I realised it’s not that simple, so that’s my biggest goal, but it’s a bit far away at the moment. I just want to improve my game to the level of women’s world champion or more than that. I will keep working to get better. I believe the grandmaster title will come that way and the world title, maybe, I can’t guarantee that.” This was said in an interview with BGNES Nurgül Salimova, who is preparing to participate in the Challengers Tournament in April.
The 20-year-old Salimova will compete against seven of the best chess players in the world for the chance to compete for the world title in 2025. “The Candidates Tournament will be the biggest challenge for me, eight of the best women in the whole world are taking part. The preparation is going hard, my opponents are at a very high level, they are all great professionals. It’s not easy to be this level, I work every day. I already have a team that I have formed. From today starts my training camp, with the support of the Sport in Bulgaria Foundation, for which I thank them. There are still two months until the tournament itself, I have time, I have ideas what exactly I want to improve in my game. I think everything is going according to plan, but we will see the result during the tournament itself.”
“For me, it is always most important to be in a good mood. It makes a huge difference in my game and I think if I feel good physically and mentally and if I’m calm about the other things – organizational and personal – I think I’ll perform well. I can’t say that I’m going to win the tournament because it’s a very tough tournament with very strong opponents, but I need to know that I was in good condition and that I gave my best. I also believe that this tournament is part of the process, my main goal is to become a men’s grandmaster, so this is just a step towards that goal,” Salimova added.
She revealed what is left for her to become a men’s grandmaster. You have to have a 2500 rating, I currently have 2426, unfortunately, it’s hard to raise the rating after 2400 because it lowers the coefficient. I have two norms for grandmaster, you have to have three tournaments with a performance over 2600, I have two such tournaments, so I need one norm and a little rating.
“This year is the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, in September, before that this year I am in the Women’s Grand Prix series, which also involves the best women in the world, this is also new for me, it will be my first time to participate in this series. Of course, there are many other tournaments every year, but the most important ones are the Olympics and the Grand Prix series,” said the young chess player about the upcoming tournaments this year.
She revealed that her favorite chess player is the former world champion Anatoly Karpov. “He’s an extremely good position player, overall a good player, a world champion. I really like his style of play, I have studied a lot of his games, as well as other world champions. You can prioritize a chess player or like his style more for different reasons, but you have to learn from everybody, you have to see all the top games, classic games. I’ve analysed a lot of these games and I think he stands out as one of my favourite chess players.”
To finish, Salimova shared whether she would like to compete with the best men’s chess players. “Everyone would like to, but if we are realistic, it is difficult at the moment, as the best chess player in the world Magnus Carlsen has reached a rating of 2882, and as a woman only the Hungarian Judit Polgar with her ELO 2735 comes close to it. I think that says enough about the difference, but I hope that women will get better and better, because we also work hard, we also deserve it. It’s a deeper topic of why men are better, unfortunately it still is,” she said.
Learn more about Nurgyul Salimova’s preparation by following the link to the interview.
Source: BGNES