European Chess Champion to train national women's chess team

By Laman Ismayilova

European Chess Champion Evgeny Tomashevsky will train the Azerbaijani women's chess team for upcoming competitions, Azernews reports.

The Azerbaijani Chess Federation decided to involve the Russian chess player in the training camp in order to improve the chess game of the young chess players and the women's national team. Chess players will be trained with a special program for individual development.

Evgeny Tomashevsky is a two-time Russian Chess Champion (2015, 2019) and the 2009 European Chess Champion. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019.

In 2009, Tomashevsky won the 10th European Individual Chess Championship after tie-breaks. A year later, he played for the gold medal-winning Russian team at the World Team Chess Championship 2009 in Bursa.

Currently, the chess player is ranked 44th in the FIDE ranking with 2694 points.

Note that, Azerbaijani female chess players successfully represent the country at international competitions.

In 2022, Govhar Beydullayeva went down in history as the first woman grandmaster to become the world champion among 20-year-olds in the history of Azerbaijani chess.

Beydullayeva drew with Zala Urh (Slovenia) and Laman Hajiyeva with Livia Jarocka (Poland) at World Junior Chess Championship U20. She secured a gold medal in the world championship of U20 chess players.

In her interview with the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Govhar Beydullayeva stressed the importance of this tournament for the players and for the entire team.

"Despite the defeat in the last round, I became the champion. It was my childhood dream. Every year, I take part in this championship. I am very happy with my result. This tournament can't be compared with other competitions. Now I'm looking forward to showing good results at the World Championships," she said.

Another Azerbaijani female chess player Gunay Mammadzada won the Belt and Road 2023 World Chess Woman's Summit. After 11 rounds, the chess player grabbed victory scoring 8.5 points.

Gunay Mammadzada holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a two-time Azerbaijani champion (2017 and 2019)