Azerbaijani grandmaster wins Tal Sochi tournament

/AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

The two-day Tal Memorial Blitz tournament came to an end in the Main Media Center in Sochi, Russia on November 14.

It was a double round robin tournament. The participants were Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Alexander Morozevich, Ernesto Inarkiev, Alexandra Kosteniuk (all – Russia), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Peter Leko (Hungary), and Shakhriyar Mammadyarov (Azerbaijan).

Azerbaijani chess grandmaster Shahriyar won the tournament. He claimed the title after scoring 16 points out of 22 possible points.

Russian Alexander Grischuk and Alexander Morozevich ranked second and third with 15.5 points and 12.5 points respectively.

The prize fund of the tournament was $100,000. The winner of the first place received $20,000.

Shahriyar represented Azerbaijan at the Chess Olympiads in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2010.

He is the two-time European champion (2009, 2013) of team championship in the national team of Azerbaijan and the world champion in rapid chess (2013). Shahriyar is also the only player in the world who became the world champion twice among boys under 20 years.

In 2003 he won the World Junior Chess Championship. He repeated his victory in 2005

He also won a bronze medal in 2007 and a silver medal in 2011.