Kurash
Central Asian wrestling in the yakhtak jacket, at home in Uzbekistan. Halal, yonbosh and chala throws score, levers and strangles are banned, and the commands stay in Uzbek.
Quick Facts
UzbekistanCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Kurash
About Kurash
Kurash is a Central Asian jacket wrestling, at home mainly in Uzbekistan. According to the tradition cited by the International Kurash Association (IKA) and the Uzbek federation, it belonged to weddings and festivals, and the IKA places it in antiquity, but we found no independent evidence of its age. The Uzbek federation credits its present competitive form to Komil Yusupov, a former international master of sport in sambo and judo, who introduced weight categories, match length, uniforms and terminology built on Uzbek words. The International Kurash Association was founded by representatives of 28 states on 6 September 1998 in Tashkent at the first international tournament, and the first world championship was held there in May 1999, per the IKA, with representatives of 48 countries.
Read more
The IKA rules score only throws. Halal (khalol in the rules) is a clean win that ends the match, for example for a throw onto both shoulder blades or two yonbosh throws. Yonbosh is a strong clean throw onto the side, chala a throw onto the buttocks or belly with technical faults. Strangling, arm levers, grabbing the trousers, kicks and strikes are punished as tanbekh, so kurash differs from judo, with which it is most often compared. Groundwork is not fought, but we found no explicit ban in the rules, and Asian Games reports confirm it. Net match time is four minutes for men and three for women. The yakhtak jacket is dark blue or green, the trousers white and the belt red, four to five centimetres wide. The referees' commands are Uzbek, the IKA lists thirteen. The Olympic Council of Asia recognised kurash on 24 January 2003, per the IKA. It was a demonstration sport at the Asian Indoor Games in 2007, a medal sport of the Asian Games in Jakarta 2018 and was also on the programme in Hangzhou 2023. Kurash is not on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage, and Uzbekistan has been preparing a nomination since December 2024.
History
Kurash's history is known mainly as told by its own federation. The International Kurash Association (IKA) says kurash is an Uzbek word and the sport is at least three and a half thousand years old, citing Herodotus, the epic Alpomish, which names kurash as a favourite art of Central Asia, and Avicenna, who reportedly recommended it for health in 10th-century Bukhara. We have not been able to confirm these claims independently and treat them as tradition. According to the Uzbek federation (partner content on Euronews, 2022), the modern rules were created by Komil Yusupov, a former international master of sport in sambo and judo, who introduced weight categories, Uzbek terminology, match length and uniforms. Datable history begins in Tashkent. The first international tournament was held there in September 1998 with participants from almost thirty countries, and on 6 September 1998 representatives of 28 states founded the IKA. The first senior world championship, per the IKA, was held in Tashkent in May 1999 with 48 countries represented. The Olympic Council of Asia officially recognised kurash, says the IKA, on 24 January 2003 at its 22nd General Assembly in Kuwait.
How it differs
Kurash is set apart from judo, with which it is most often compared, by the absence of groundwork: it is all standing throws, and according to a Malay Mail report from the 2023 Asian Games judoka therefore switch to it, whereas judo has groundwork. Strangling and arm levers, which judo scores as winning techniques, are tanbekh in kurash, that is, a penalty. Unlike alysh, kurash does not keep the belt grip throughout, the referee orders it with the command jazo only when nobody has scored by mid-match, and scoring is by the grades halal, yonbosh and chala instead of a clean win and points. The IKA also claims that sambo arose when Russians in the early 20th century took over kurash's throwing techniques, we have not found independent confirmation of this claim.
Technique
The IKA rules score throws in three grades (Art. 28). Halal, written khalol in the rules, is a clean win and ends the match: it is awarded for a throw onto both shoulder blades or, for example, for two throws scored as yonbosh. Yonbosh is a strong clean throw landing the opponent on the side, chala a throw onto the buttocks or belly with serious technical faults. Strangling, arm levers, grabbing the trousers, deliberate kicks and strikes are punished as tanbekh. Groundwork is not fought, but we found no explicit ban in the rules, which only provide that a technique begun inside the gilam contest area and finished outside it counts as performed inside (Art. 27). If nobody has scored by mid-match, the referee orders a belt grip with the command jazo. Net match time is 4 minutes for men aged 16 to 35 and 3 minutes for women (Art. 24). The IKA senior weight categories for 2026 are 60, 66, 73, 81, 90, 100, up to 120 and over 120 kg for men, and 48, 52, 57, 63, 70, 78, 87 and over 87 kg for women (Art. 23). The yakhtak jacket is dark blue or green, the trousers white and the belt red, 4 to 5 cm wide (Art. 16). Terminology rests on Uzbek words, 13 according to the IKA and 14 according to the Uzbek federation.
Ranks and progression
The rules of the International Kurash Association know no grades, belts or honorary titles, and wrestlers are divided only by age and weight. The senior bout time, four minutes for men and three for women, applies under Art. 24 to ages 16 to 35, while the younger and older categories have their own weight and time tables, which are internally inconsistent in the rules. A wrestler's standing is therefore decided only by results at world championships, continental championships and the Asian Games. We did not find a national system of performance classes in the sources.
Today
Kurash is governed by the International Kurash Association (IKA), founded in 1998 in Tashkent. Sources differ on its membership: the IKA states 140 national federations, the Uzbek federation on Euronews 136, and a 2024 SportAccord website 118 members, which also states recognition by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and links to WADA and ITA. The continental Kurash Confederation of Asia (also the Asia-Oceania Kurash Confederation) is led by Komil Ruziev, and about twenty national federations were represented at its congress in Tehran in June 2024. At the Asian Indoor Games kurash was a demonstration sport in 2007, and the OCA lists it among the indoor games sports for that year. It became a medal sport of the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang in 2018, and in Hangzhou it was contested from 30 September to 2 October 2023 in seven disciplines. The IKA also lists it as a sport of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and of the Asian Beach Games. The IKA withdrew the fifteenth senior world championship, planned for 17 to 23 November 2025 in Turkey, from its original date on 11 October 2025, because the Turkish federation had not met the organiser's obligations, it says. Kurash is not on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage, and the Uzbek sports ministry discussed preparing a nomination in December 2024.
Did you know
In September 2018 Tashkent hosted a commemorative 20th-anniversary IKA tournament with 100 000 dollars in funding, and Sherali Juraev won the final over Bekmurod Oltiboev. The IKA and the World Ethnosport Confederation jointly ran kurash at the 2022 World Nomad Games in İznik, Turkey. It is not yet on the UNESCO list, though its federation places it in antiquity, and Uzbekistan is only preparing a nomination.
Frequently asked questions
How is a kurash match won?
By a clean win, halal, for example with a throw onto both shoulder blades or two yonbosh throws. When no halal is scored, the yonbosh and chala grades earned decide.
Is kurash at the Asian Games?
Yes. It was a medal sport in Jakarta in 2018, and in Hangzhou it was contested from 30 September to 2 October 2023 in seven disciplines.
Is kurash on the UNESCO list?
No. Kurash is not among Uzbekistan's elements of intangible heritage at UNESCO, and the Uzbek sports ministry began preparing a nomination in December 2024.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.