Azerbaijan pins great hopes on its chess grandmasters

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

The Azerbaijani chess teams will show high scores at the 42nd World Chess Olympiad in Baku.

Youth and Sports Minister Azad Rahimov made the remark on August 31 at a press conference dedicated to holding of the 42nd World Chess Olympiad in Baku.

“We believe that our wonderful teams will be able to achieve high results in these competitions, and we wish them success,” he said.

Rahimov added that the Chess Olympiad in Baku will become one of the most well-organized Olympiads.

“We are very happy that the Olympiad will be held in such a beautiful place like Baku Crystal Hall,” the minister said. “I don’t want to compare, but I haven’t seen such a well-organized chess Olympiad anywhere, though I visited many of them.”

In turn, Director of the Baku Chess Olympiad Operating Committee Mahir Mammadov expressed hope that the Azerbaijani national team at the Olympiad will at least enter the TOP-3 leaders’ list.

“We pin great hopes on our women's team, and believe that they will show the results exceeding their rating,” he said.

At the same time, he noted that all the organizational work was carried out at a high level and the best specialists of Azerbaijan were attracted to this process.

As many as 176 countries were registered to take part in the 42nd World Chess Olympiad. As many as 181 men’s and 142 women’s teams will be competing for the championship in Baku.

The Olympiad in Baku will become a record one by the number of participants. In addition, this Olympiad will become the most large-scale sporting event for Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan will be represented by three teams.

The Olympiad, which will be held in Baku Crystal Hall, consists of 11 rounds. The first round will be held on September 2, and the Olympiad will end on September 13.