WHAT LINKS ‘SOCAR-AZERBAIJAN’ AND REAL MADRID?

The "SOCAR-Azerbaijan" chess club will hold the title of Europe's strongest club for a year after winning the title in Eilat (Israel), where our chess players took the gold medals in the club tournament for the European Cup.

Before the final round four teams still had a chance of the championship. After the seventh and final round it was clear that "SOCAR-Azerbaijan" and the team of the St. Petersburg Chess Federation had an equal number of points. After calculating the tie-break points, at the awards ceremony the judges announced that "SOCAR-Azerbaijan" were champions.

Starting with this season, game points as well as match points are being taken into account in the European Cup. The calculations are made in several stages and not everyone in the chess community is fully versed in the new format. That was why at the tournament in Eilat neither the judges nor the organizers were able to name the winner until the last moment.

To become champions, "SOCAR-Azerbaijan" had to beat the "Tomsk-400" club from Russia. Vladimir Tukmakov's boys handled the job very well, winning 5-1. Teymur Racabov, Sahriyar Mammadyarov, Veselin Topalov and Emil Sutovskiy all won their matches, and two were drawn. After this the Azerbaijanis focused their attention on the match between St. Petersburg and the Israeli "Ashdod" team. The Russians won 4-2 and had the same number of points as "SOCAR-Azerbaijan" The winner could only be determined by looking at other factors. The Azerbaijani team was not content just with silver medals, like last year: they wanted the championship. And that's how it turned out.  For the first time in its short history the Azerbaijani State Oil Company had won the European Cup. Despite losing in the first round to "Ashdod", who were reckoned to be the tournament favourites, "SOCAR-Azerbaijan" managed to get their game together and record six victories in a row.

"SOCAR-Azerbaijan" is being compared more and more with the Real Madrid soccer team. The stars in the Azerbaijani State Oil Company team play together as a team, just like Real. Teymur Racabov and Sahriyar Mammadyarov played the first two boards for the Azerbaijanis. Former world champion Veselin Topalov and the celebrated grandmasters Aleksandr Grishchuk, Gata Kamskiy and Emil Sutovskiy all made a significant contribution to the team's victory. Eltac Safarli and Qadir Huseynov also shared the joy of victory. It was team play that helped pave the way to "gold". "In fact, "SOCAR-Azerbaijan" played like Real Madrid. The stars played together as a team. We had prepared for this for several years. On the first occasion we came fourth. Last year we took the silver, and now, at last, we are champions. For the Azerbaijanis it was the championship or nothing," was how Sahriyar Mammadyarov summed up our team's performance.

Teymur Racabov, who played the first board, increased his rating even more. He now has the highest ranking among the Azerbaijani players and with 2,792 points lies fourth in the world classification for the fourth month in a row. Incidentally, this points total is a record for Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani club's captain, Vladimir Tukmakov, twice became Olympic champion with Ukraine both as a player and as head of his team. He is also a European Champions Cup winner. Now he is also a winner of the European Clubs Cup as head of "SOCAR-Azerbaijan". "'SOCAR-Azerbaijan's' victory will have a special place in my career," Tukmakov said after the championship. And club director Mahir Mammadov is confident that "SOCAR-Azerbaijan" will continue to triumph. "By signing the State programme for the development of chess for 2009-2014, head of state Ilham Aliyev has contributed to the development of this sport. The Ministry of Youth and Sport has also played a big part in our victory, along with the federation. When setting up the 'SOCAR-Azerbaijan' club our main aim was to win the European Cup. We created this club in order to win titles," Mammadov said. 

Now, "SOCAR-Azerbaijan's" main objective is to defend the title of European Cup winners in 2013. "SOCAR-Azerbaijan" will remain champions until the next tournament. But will we be able to defend our title? Only time will tell.