TWO STEPS FROM THE CROWN

Azerbaijani chess players Sahriyar Mammadyarov and Teymur Racabov started training for the tournament of contenders for the world championship title, considered the year's most important.  The tournament, which will be held in May in Kazan, will assemble the planet's best grand masters.  For the first time, two chess players from Azerbaijan will vie for the title of world's best player.  Sahriyar Mammadyarov, who has established himself among the top 10 best players in the world, will compete with Israeli chess player Boris Gelfand in a play-off.  The latter is perhaps an unwelcome opponent for our player.  Despite the fact that in the last round of last year's European club championship in Bulgaria, Sahriyar won a brilliant victory over Gelfand, he must not underestimate his opponent, because the record of their games is not in our player's favour.

In the last tournament of 2010 - the Mikhail Tal tournament - Mammadyarov played Gelfand again.  For our grand master, the game was particularly important, which was not the case for Gelfand - if Sahriyar won, he would win the prestigious tournament.  Gaining advantage from the start but then making two mistakes, Mammadyarov lost the game and the chance to win the tournament.

Boris Gelfand is quite an experienced chess player of great renown in the international arena.  He is the strongest grand master in Israel and is no easy opponent for anyone.  This is why Sahriyar faces a difficult task.  Another Azerbaijani player, Teymur Racabov, will play former world champion from Russia Vladimir Kramnik.  There is no need to introduce Kramnik - he has a unique style in modern-day chess.  Kramnik has been part of the international chess elite for a long time and is considered one of the favourites in the upcoming tournament.  However, Racabov has experience of beating the world's strongest players.  In different tournaments he has defeated formidable opponents like Garry Kasparov, Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik.  Now he has to win an important victory in Kazan.  Kramnik is known for his love of open game and usually does not forgive mistakes.  The smallest flaw in a game with Kramnik may result in losing the game.

Here is an interesting fact:  in contrast with Mammadyarov, Racabov does not plan to take part in tournaments before May, preferring to focus on training for the tournament of world championship candidates.  Mammadyarov has already tuned himself up by winning the Aeroflot Open tournament in January, which was one of the qualifiers for the world championship in rapid chess.  He not only earned $10,000, but also earned qualification for the finals.

Now Sahriyar and Teymur are preparing for the candidates' tournament with their coaches.  In the run-up to the prestigious event, the players' plans are kept in strictest secrecy, because their opponents will try to find out what their 'set pieces' are.  This is why there is no information whatsoever about our chess players' preparations.  The only thing we know is that they are training with foreign specialists and will complete the process by late April.

Let us note that two other games during the candidates' tournament will be played: by Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky and Levon Aronyan and Aleksandr Grishchuk.  At the first stage, the players will play four games.  The winner of the tournament of the eight candidates will play the incumbent world chess champion, Viswanathan Anand, in 2012.  The match for the chess crown was scheduled to take place in London, but because of preparations for the summer Olympics in the same city, the British asked the knights of the black and white board to change the venue.  It remains unclear where the game between the future challenger and incumbent champion will take place.  However, the Azerbaijani Chess Federation announced that should an Azerbaijani player win the candidates' tournament, Baku will be nominated as a candidate city for the game with Anand.  So now it is up to Sahriyar and Teymur to decide if the final game in the world championship will take place in our capital.

For many years, playing Viswanathan Anand for the world champion's crown has been the main goal of our players.  And we believe that the day will come when the chess crown will come back to Baku.