Prominent Kazakh chess player Bibisara Asaubayeva set an unwanted record at a major European tournament, losing eight games in a row, the website infohub.kz reports.
Asaubayeva struggled in the opening blitz tournament of the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot 2026 in Budapest. The event was played under the Swiss system and drew 24 players, including 22 men and two women.
In the first six rounds, the Kazakh player lost to India's Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the American Fabiano Caruana, Azerbaijan's Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, the Dutchman Jorden van Foreest, the American Wesley So and Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov. In the seventh round she lost to Vietnam's Le Quang Liem, and in the eighth to the American Andrew Hong.
She managed to end the losing streak only in the final, ninth round. Unfortunately, she did not win there either — the game ended in a draw.
Asaubayeva finished with 0.5 points out of a possible nine and took last place.
The participants in the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot 2026 now face the next stages of the competition: rapid and classical chess tournaments.