Almaty Physics Battles
A team physics tournament for school students, organized by university students and high school seniors. 505 people took part in 2023 and more than 1,000 in 2024. The tournament is now on hold.
Become a partner2023: Astana
The first tournament took place on 11–12 November 2023 under the name Astana Physics Battles. A small team of organizers ran it at Haileybury Astana. 505 participants came from 6 countries.
For a first tournament it went well, and we learned a lot from it. The very next day we started planning a bigger one.
2023 partners
“The APhB team did a great job. Not every company can organize an event of this scale. I think everything went perfectly. Congratulations on a successful Physics Battles!”
2024: Satbayev University
In 2024 the tournament moved to Almaty and ran for a full week, 4–11 July, at Satbayev University. National Chemical Battles took place there at the same time.
More than 1,000 participants came from Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Belarus. For the first time, teams travelled from abroad: a team from SUNC MSU, the specialized school of Moscow State University, and the official team of the Republic of Bashkortostan.
Almaty TV news story about APhB 2024
2024 partners
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Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan -
Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan
“APhB are organizers who are pleasant to work with: clear communication, high academic standards and attention to participants. We are glad to support the development of the olympiad movement.”
2025: Baiterek School
After 2024 most of the organizing committee left to study at universities in different countries, and it was unclear whether the tournament would continue. A new team took it over. From 28 November to 1 December 2025, APhB was held at Baiterek School of Science and Technology in Almaty together with Almaty Math Battles and National Chemical Battles. It brought together more participants and more countries than any previous tournament.
The tournament kept growing: 505 participants in 2023, more than 1,000 in 2024 and even more in 2025.
Beyond Curriculum's video about the 2025 tournament
2025 partners
“For us, as a new school, helping to promote APhB was an experiment: we wanted to see how such large events are organized. The experiment turned out to be more than successful. We are immensely grateful to the APhB team for this experience, and to this day we proudly tell everyone about their enthusiasm and sense of responsibility!”
Problem authors, jury and volunteers
Over the three tournaments the team wrote more than 250 problems. The authors are olympiad contestants from Kazakhstan, Russia and other countries: high school students, and students of MIT, Caltech, Williams College, Notre Dame, Grinnell College, NYU, HKUST, CityU, KAIST, Nazarbayev University and MIPT. Among them are former and current jury members and problem setters of the All-Russian School Olympiad, the Republican Olympiad of Kazakhstan, the International Zhautykov Olympiad, the LFI Olympiad and others.
The jury came from 6 cities and worked 12 hours a day. Volunteers came from all over the country and even from Tashkent. They met participants at the airport, took them hiking to the Butakovsky waterfall and stayed on night duty in the dormitory.
In total, volunteers put in hundreds of hours, some of them at night.
Meetings and government partners
In 2024 the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Kazakhstan were among the tournament's partners.
Ministry board meeting
Extended board meeting of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Kazakhstan, “Quality Education — Quality Human Capital”.
Meeting with the minister
The organizing committee meeting Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education of Kazakhstan.
Learning from IZhO
Learning how international olympiads are run from Meirbek Meirlan Yedigeruly, director of RPhMS Almaty and organizer of IZhO 2024.
Besides physics
Between rounds we visited the Kasteyev Museum, hiked to the Butakovsky waterfall in the Trans-Ili Alatau, listened to lectures by Nazarbayev University professors, played football and sang along to the guitar. There were also workshops and evenings for getting to know each other.
We had movie nights, and many participants went home with new friends from other countries. One participant went on the mountain hike in flip-flops: he simply didn't know there would be a hike.
Partners
Companies, schools, universities and ministries that supported APhB in 2023–2025.
- Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan
- Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan
What participants say
“APhB left a big impression on me. The organization was excellent, so participants could focus completely on solving hard problems and showing what they know.”
Sagyndyk Khamza
Team unBILievable
BIL, Astana
“APhB 2024 was very memorable. It was fun. I want to say a huge thank-you to the people who translated the problems into Kazakh, and to the jury, who sometimes acted as my personal translators.”
Nazgul
NIS of Chemistry and Biology, Aktau
“I liked the mountain hike most of all. It was my first time climbing a mountain, and my curiosity kept running ahead of my feet. It was hard, but I came back with lots of impressions and new friends!”
Almaskhan Arsen
Team Pchelovody
BIL, Shymkent
■ Partnership
Partners helped us run the tournament with funding, prizes, venues and experts.
How partners helped
- 01 Funding the tournament
- 02 Prizes and merchandise for participants
- 03 Venues for the tournament
- 04 Experts for the jury and lectures
What partners got
- 01 Logo on participants' T-shirts
- 02 Logo in the tournament's printed materials
- 03 Mentions on social media and in the press
- 04 A chance to meet strong students from across the region
- 05 A company presentation for participants
Participant T-shirt
Write to us
The tournament is on hold for now. If you would like to support APhB in the future, write to us.