Chess Olympiad one of grandiose sporting event in Azerbaijan's history, national GM

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

Less than two months left prior to the splendid chess festival -- 42nd World Chess Olympiad -- gathering many famous and strongest chess masters in the “City of Winds” -- Baku.

“Chess Olympiad is one of the grandiose sporting event in the history of Azerbaijan," believes Shahriyar Mammadyarov, leader of the Azerbaijan men's chess team who will represent the country in this prestigious tournament.  

Mammadyarov hopes that the national chess players will show good results at the prestigious event.  

Three male and three female teams will represent Azerbaijan, which is holding diligent preparations to the major Olympiad.

In an interview to the press office of the Olympiad, national grandmaster called on chess lovers and Azerbaijanis to support the Olympiad.

"Participation of more than 170 countries in the event is indeed very big success for the country. The national chess players set their hands to a preparation for the competition. And we hope that our chess players will show good results. I urge chess lovers and Azerbaijanis to support the Olympiad. I hope that the national team will achieve success in such a major and difficult competition,” he said.

The 31-year-old Azerbaijani GM ranks 12th in the FIDE world rankings with 2,764 points.

The two-fold European champion (2009 and 2013) and world rapid champion (2013) Shahriyar is a tactical and aggressive chess player, who always distinguishes himself from others with his smart mind and the ability to find a way out of a difficult situation in the game.

Mammadyarov achieved his world fame from the very young age. This once again proves his persistence and extraordinary abilities to fight with world great chess players. The fact that he is the only player in the world, having become world champion under 20 year old twice, speaks for itself.

This June, Shahriyar won the 3rd Shamkir Chess Tournament, the Vugar Gashimov Memorial. He defeated both top seeds Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri in the last two rounds, which put him in a tiebreak situation with Caruana. He defeated Caruana in the tiebreak, thus becoming absolute leader of the tournament.

With 2,000 chess masters from 180 counties, FIDE’s biennial chess tournament, will gather teams from all over the world to compete for the best title. The Olympiad, scheduled for September 1-14, will take place in the Crystal Hall, once hosting Eurovision Song Contest in 2012.