Bibisara Assaubayeva

2016-2019

In 2016, Assaubayeva moved to Moscow, Russia with her family and switched her federation affiliation to Russia. She won the gold medal at the World Cadets Chess Championship in Batumi, Georgia in the Girls U12 category,^[10] and the next year won silver in the Girls U14 division in Montevideo, Uruguay.^[11] Also in 2017, at the age of 13, she competed in the European Individual Championship in Minsk.^[6] She won three games, lost three, and drew four, gaining a norm for the title of International Master.^[12]

In 2019, Assaubayeva decided to move back to Kazakhstan and switched her national federation back to it;^[13] she had never applied for Russian citizenship while living in Russia.^[14] In March 2019, she made her debut on the Kazakhstani national team at the Women's World Team Championship on the 3rd and 2nd boards and earned 5 points out of 9, which was the best result on the team.^[15]

2021

In August 2021, Assaubayeva won the Asian Continental Chess Championship/Asian Women's Continental Chess Championship with an undefeated score of 7.5/9 points, securing a spot in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament.^[16]

In December 2021, Assaubayeva finished second behind Alexandra Kosteniuk in the Women's World Rapid Championship, held in Warsaw, Poland. Two days later, she became the Women's World Blitz champion, winning the event with a round to spare and a score of 14/17, winning 13 games.^[17]

2022

In June 2022, Assaubayeva was officially entered into the Guinness World Records book as the youngest women's World Blitz Champion in chess history.^[18] She became the first Kazakhstani chess player ever featured in the book for individual chess achievements.^[19]

In August 2022, Assaubayeva was awarded the title of Outstanding Female Chess Player of 2021 in Asia by the international chess governing body FIDE during the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India.^[20]

In December 2022, Assaubayeva successfully defended her title at the Women's World Blitz Chess Championship in Almaty, Kazakhstan, scoring 13/17 points to finish in sole first place.^[21] That month, she also won the silver medal at the Belt and Road World Chess Woman’s Summit Tournament in China, finishing level with the winner on 8.5/11 points but placing second on tiebreaks.^[22]

2023

In September 2023, Assaubayeva led the Kazakhstani national team on board one to a silver medal finish at the FIDE World Women's Team Chess Championship in Bydgoszcz, Poland, losing only the final match against Georgia.^[23][24]

In October 2023, Assaubayeva won the bronze medal in the Women's Team Standard event at the delayed 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, representing Kazakhstan, after a decisive 3-1 final round performance against Uzbekistan.^[25][26]

2024

In September 2024, Assaubayeva anchored the Kazakhstani national team on board one at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary.^[27] She scored an undefeated 7/10 points, with four victories, including a critical win against India's Harika Dronavalli, and six draws.^[28] Her performance guided Kazakhstan to the silver medal behind tournament winner India, marking both her first career Olympiad medal and the first-ever team podium finish for Kazakhstan at a FIDE Chess Olympiad.^[29]

In October 2024, Assaubayeva debuted in the second edition of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League in London, competing as a drafted star for the American Gambits franchise.^[30] Playing on the designated women's board, she scored 11 game points across 10 rapid matches, highlighted by critical victories over grandmasters Elisabeth Pähtz and Valentina Gunina.^[31] Her performance anchored the American Gambits to a joint second-place podium finish in the final tournament standings alongside the PBG Alaskan Knights, falling just short of the championship final.^[32]

2025

At the 2025 Sharjah Masters tournament, Assaubayeva qualified for the grandmaster title, having both completed her final norm as well as achieved the required 2500 rating.^[33] She became the 43rd female chess player to achieve the title and the second from her country.^[33][34]

At the Grenke Freestyle Open in 2025, Assaubayeva was one of the two best female players with 6/9 points, and placed 42nd among all 299 players.^[35] Consequently, she was the first woman to be invited to a Freestyle Chess Grand Slam at Las Vegas in July 2025. However, she finished last in the group stage and also lost in the knockout round 1 of the lower bracket.^[36]

In September 2025, Assaubayeva competed in the third edition of the FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Tournament held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.^[37] She finished undefeated with a score of 7.5/11 points consisting of four wins and seven draws, securing the clear third-place bronze medal behind tournament winner Vaishali Rameshbabu and runner-up Kateryna Lagno.^[38]

In December 2025, Assaubayeva competed in the FIDE Women's World Blitz Chess Championship held in Doha, Qatar.^[39] Following 15 rounds of Swiss-system qualifying, she finished in a five-way tie for first place with 11/15 points, advancing to the four-player knockout stage based on superior tiebreak criteria.^[39] In the semifinals, she defeated Zhu Jiner 3–0 before overcoming Anna Muzychuk 2.5–1.5 in the final match to secure her third career world blitz title.^[40] The victory also earned her a direct qualification slot for the Women's Candidates Tournament 2026 through the FIDE Women's Events 2024–25, becoming the first Kazakhstani chess player in history to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.^[41]

2026

In January, Assaubayeva placed 5th in the Challengers section of Tata Steel Chess Tournament, she scored 7½/13 points (+4-2=7), With a performance rating of 2604 to gain 19 rating points.^[42]

In February, Assaubayeva became the first player to qualify for the inaugural FIDE Women's Freestyle Chess World Championship 2027, after defeating Alexandra Kosteniuk 2.5–1.5 in a four-game selection exhibition match.^[43] The finals are scheduled to take place in Weissenhaus, Germany, in February 2027.^[44]

Assaubayeva participated in the Women's Candidates Tournament 2026. She was in 5th place after 11 rounds, then won her next two games to join Vaishali R in joint lead. In the final round, Assaubayeva drew her game against Divya Deshmukh, allowing Vaishali to win the tournament with a win against Kateryna Lagno. Assaubayeva finished the tournament in 2nd place with a score of 8/14.^[45]

Assaubayeva won the Women's section of Norway Chess 2026 with a round to spare, scoring 16.5/30^[46], against a field consisting of Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun, former challenger Koneru Humpy, Zhu Jiner, Anna Muzychuk and Divya Deshmukh, This helped her climb to a career-high rank of number 5 among women, and the highest ranked non-Chinese.^[47]

In August, Assaubayeva placed tied 3-4 at Cairns Cup alongside American Carissa Yip, scoring 5 points (+2-1=6) with wins against Stavroula Tsolakidou and Alexandra Kosteniuk and the loss against eventual Champion Tan Zhongyi.^[48][49][50] Assaubayeva won the rapid section of WR Chess Tour (Europe leg), and finished 2nd in the blitz section, losing to Anna Muzychuk in the finals.^[51]

Solozhenkin cheating claims

Russian grandmaster and coach Evgeniy Solozhenkin accused Assaubayeva on several internet articles of cheating during the World Youth U14 Championship in Uruguay in September 2017, claiming his daughter had heard her talking about her ongoing game during a toilet break. The FIDE Ethics Commission investigated the case and ultimately suspended Solozhenkin for making unsubstantiated allegations of cheating, citing an analysis of Kenneth W. Regan that showed no evidence of cheating.

A group of grandmasters wrote an open letter protesting against Solozhenkin's suspension, without giving an opinion about his accusations against Assaubayeva.^[70] Assaubayeva's family sued Solozhenkin for defamatory allegations made in public and in the media that offended Assaubayeva's honor and dignity. The Moscow Appellate Court ordered Solozhenkin to apologize, disavow his allegations to the media, delete the defamatory articles, and pay a compensatory sum of 100,000 rubles.^[71]

Unsolicited letters

In 2022 the investigative journalism outlet Meduza revealed that Assaubayeva was one of at least 15 female chess players who had received harassments in form of unsolicited letters containing used condoms and pornographic pictures from a resident in Riga, Latvia between 2009 and 2021. Assaubayeva was fourteen when she received such a letter in 2018, and several other recipients had also been minors. With the assistance of forensic experts and through searching the contents of data breaches, Meduza managed to pinpoint the identity of the sender to international master Andrejs Strebkovs.^{[72][73][74][75]} Although he was unable to be prosecuted under Latvian law, Strebkovs was subsequently banned from all FIDE events for 12 years, and had his International Master title revoked.^[76]