National GM among Top 10 in FIDE rating

By Laman Ismayilova

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has announced the rating of chess players for March 2023.

Azerbaijani GM Teymur Rajabov has returned to the top 10 in the ranking, Azernews reports.

The 36-year-old grandmaster ranks 10 with 2,747 points, while Shahriyar Mammadyarov is in 15th place with 2,738 points.

The FIDE rating also includes Azerbaijani chess players, Gadir Huseynov (83rd place), Rauf Mammadov (100th), Gunay Mammadzada (22nd), Ulviyya Fataliyeva (42nd), Govhar Beidullayeva (61st), Xanum Balajayeva (70th) and Gulnar Mammadova (88th).

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) governs international chess competitions. Each month, FIDE publishes the lists "Top 100 Players", "Top 100 Women", "Top 100 Juniors" and "Top 100 Girls" rankings of countries according to the average rating of their Top 10 players and Top 10 female players using the Elo rating system.

Shahriyar Mammadyarov is a three-fold European Team Champion (2009, 2013, and 2017) and gold medalist at the 2012 Chess Olympiad on the third board.

He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 2003 and repeated his victory in 2005, becoming the only two-time champion, achieving a 2,953 performance rating after eight rounds.

After winning the Essent Tournament in 2006, Shahriyar achieved world fame.

In June 2016, Mammadyarov won the 3rd Vugar Gashimov Memorial Shamkir Chess Tournament.

He defeated Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri in the last two rounds, which put him in a tie-break situation with Caruana. He defeated Caruana in the tiebreak, thus giving him a tournament victory.

In 2021, Mammadyarov defeated the 13-time world champion, Garry Kasparov, at the Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb (Croatia).

Teymur Rajabov earned the title of a grandmaster at the age of 14, making him the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time. He defeated Kasparov back in 2003.

In 2003, Rajabov gained international fame after beating the then world No 1 Garry Kasparov in the Linares tournament, followed by victories over former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Ruslan Ponomariov all in the same year.

He also won the European Team Chess Championship with Azerbaijan in 2009, 2013, and 2017.

His major individual achievements include joint first place at the 2008 Elista Grand Prix, the 2017 Geneva Grand Prix, and the 2019 FIDE World Cup.