Even when she was very young, there was a curious incident with the current chess queen Nurgyul Salimova. It is told by the father Ilhan Salimov Ibryamov.
“It was months after Nurgul learned to play chess alongside me and especially his grandfather Salim Salimov, who is indeed a great master, but self-taught.
At 4 years old, she was already aware of the figures, how they move, what the rules are in general. I took her to a tournament. I see, the position is excellent, he can take his opponent’s queen. Don’t do it!
I asked her why? The answer was typically childish because I couldn’t stretch myself that far. Then I gave advice that he should go around the chessboard and get to the queen. He listened to me and succeeded several times in the future,” recalls the father, Ilhan Salimov.
The first word that Nurgül uttered was “mama”, then “daddy”. It took place at the age of 14 months, bravely and from time to time.
She did not create any difficulties in her upbringing.
“She was meek and obedient. Like any little girl, she played with dolls, she also had stuffed toys. She loved to watch cartoons on TV,” reveals father Ilhan and rewinds the tape to the beginning of Nurgül’s fascination with chess.
“She was not yet 4 years old. We had a wooden chess at home, which we still keep as a relic. We played with each other – me, my brother and grandfather. She began to look around, it seemed that she was interested. So grandfather Salim began to teach her “She absorbed everything quickly. It was love at first sight. She had no ambitions to become a champion,” admits Ilhan Salimov.
It is frank that after turning 10 years old, Nurgül did not know the taste of losing her first teachers – her father and grandfather.
At the age of 5, they bought a bicycle, but she never got around it. You preferred her chess. That’s why they bought a new one.
The other sport she preferred was table tennis.
“We played regularly in our free time, and it was a corner. He also went to kindergarten, but the teachers allowed him to be absent because of the frequent competitions,” recalls Ilhan and reveals that as a child, and until now, his favorite manjis were those prepared by his mother Gulzaz.
Number one was chicken livers, chicken wings and cheese or spinach pie. She also loved Coca-Cola, but when she grew up, she dropped it from her menu.
Nurgyul met her future personal trainer Zhivko Zhekov in Silistra.
There she participated in a tournament for children. She was not even 5 years old, the others were 7-8. Grandpa is leading her. Manicheto from the village of Krepcha, Targovishtko, performs brilliantly.
“Then this child impressed me. It looked like she had bread in her. I didn’t hesitate, I talked to grandfather Salim Salimov and convinced him to take her to my club “Burgas 64”. He agreed. We started intensive training on Skype. For hours She lived with her parents in the village, I in Burgas.
Our joint work quickly produced results. She was 5 years and 9 months old, and became the champion of Bulgaria in the age group up to 8 years.
The championship was in Sunny Beach. He literally smashed them with a hundred percent success rate – 6 wins from 6 games. As if this success further motivated her. Well, it’s true, there were cases, although rare, when she was too lazy to train, but that’s normal, it’s about a child,” the champion’s opener, Zhivko Zhekov, returned the tape years ago.
He also kept curious memories of their work together.
“Nurgül had an interesting ritual. Before every party, he called his mother Gulzaz on the phone.
She and father Ilhan and grandfather Salim took turns accompanying her to tournaments during her childhood years.
During a party, she regularly looked around the room to make sure they were around her. This clearly gave her more courage and energy to win against her rivals,” recalls the personal coach of the runner-up at the Women’s World Cup in 2023 and European champion with the Bulgarian national team also in 2023.
“She was extremely superstitious about the clothes she wore. She wore pink summer slippers. She was convinced that they brought good luck.
He wanted to play with them in tournaments in the winter,” Zivko Zhekov recalls.
At the team championship for children up to 10 years old, she was in the boys’ team. She at 9. Lost a game, upset, worried to the max.
“I was impressed by the words with which he addressed me: You won’t leave me now?” reveals Zivko Zhekov, who continues to this day to give advice and help in the analysis of individual parties.
Now the grown-up chess queen is a second-year part-time student at the Academy of Economics in Svishtov. He keeps chasing his goals, and they keep getting higher and higher in the chess game!
The rise of the girl from the village of Krepcha
Although she is only 21 years old, the girl from the village of Krepcha has a rich business card, marked by many successes and continuous rise.
Nurgyul Salimova started moving the figures at the age of 4, and until now.
She is the champion of Bulgaria in the different age groups a record 10 times.
In 2011, in Albena, she became the European champion for girls under 8 years old.
In Porto Carras in 2015, she won the world title for girls up to 12 years old, as well as the junior championship for the same age of the European Union.
She won the Bulgarian women’s championship in 2017. Later – in 2019, she is already the leader in the world rankings for girls up to 16 years old.
Salimova finished second in last year’s women’s world cup.
This achievement and the European title with the Bulgarian women’s team, as well as the gold medal for the best result on the second board, are the pinnacle of the international grandmaster’s career so far.