TO WIN THE GRAND PRIX AND A TITLE

Leading Azerbaijani grand masters play major international tournaments non-stop. Once Teymur Racabov had completed his work in the third stage of the FIDE Grand Prix in Elista, where he was one of the winners, he began preparations for the traditional contest in Wijk aan Zee. The New Year may be a turning point for him, since the chess player has every chance of competing for the world crown. Anyway, let us deal with first things first.

Victory for three

It was not so easy for Racabov to win the Elista stage of the Grand Prix. Having tied with Aleksandr Grishchuk in the final round, he and his opponent, as well as Dmitriy Yakovenko, shared the trophy. If we take all the additional coefficients into account, the actual winner of the tournament was Grishchuk, however, all three grand masters were named winners. And it is clear why, if we look at the whole series of Grand Prix tournaments, on the basis of which the overall winner is identified. So Teymur accomplished his task - while he came second in the second stage in Sochi, this time he improved his position and led the overall event. In the match against Grishchuk, our chess player imposed his will on his opponent and employed a number of tactical manoeuvres but failed to break down the Russian's line of defence. "A titanic battle! The grand masters played their roles honestly. But their forces were equal. An interesting theoretical duel in the old Indian defence ended in Racabov's favour - he was the first to take his opponent by surprise and took the initiative after a series of uncertain decisions by both sides. Grishchuk saw the danger in time and simplified the game. The end game with different bishops seemed at first sight to be a certain draw. But Teymur was quite persistent and exerted a certain pressure. Aleksandr demonstrated his sound defence technique and stood firm," said correspondent Sergey Shipov, while commenting on the game between Racabov and Grishchuk.

According to a number of specialists, Teymur gave his strongest performance in this tournament. In none of the 13 games he had did he make any dubious decisions, while his loss in the game with Ernesto Inarkiyev, which he had almost won, cannot be called anything other than an unfortunate misunderstanding.

"It is clear that the result cannot be regarded as successful, as I had to share first place. I put on quite a strong performance here. Of course, it is quite annoying that I lost to Inarkiyev. I ran out of time and lost a game I should have won. I am happy with all the other games. I am a little tired. I was not well-prepared for the game in the penultimate round with Vladimir Akopyan and made a lot of mistakes. In principle, I can congratulate myself for the tournament because I shared first place and increased my ranking. I think that this tournament was quite good, and the quality of play was quite high," Teymur said.

Vuqar Hasimov came fourth; he was in the lead at one point, but failed to make it into the first three. The final fourth place affected his positions in the overall Grand Prix event, in which he fell to third place, behind Racabov and Wang Yue. Sahriyar Mammadyarov, who failed in the tournament in Elista, coming ninth, took sixth place in the overall event.

The results achieved in Elista could not but affect FIDE's ranking list of 1 January, in which Racabov takes one of the top positions - sixth place. The recent period went quite well for the player and his successful performance in the Kammyk capital secured him a higher ranking. Thus it is no surprise that Teymur improved his placing considerably in comparison with his October ranking, strengthening his hold on the top ten - moving from eighth to sixth place. At the same time, if we take into account the fact that Teymur will perform in almost all the tournaments in the New Year, his sixth position may be quite a good bridgehead for further progress.

If Racabov can congratulate himself for the recent period, his colleague in the national team, Sahriyar Mammadyarov, continues to go down the rankings. While in October he fell out of the top ten, taking 14th place, he has now worsened his position. He now occupies 18th place and the grand master should be thinking about his future. Since he cannot be happy, not just with the last few months, but with the whole year, he needs to retrieve his position. Although Sahriyar showed signs, at the Grand Prix in Elista, of the performance that took him into the ranks of the strongest players, the grand master still lacks stability.

It is notable that Vuqar Hasimov is one place behind Mammadyarov, and he continues to progress. In October he was in 31st place, and now he is in the top twenty, where he feels quite comfortable. It is interesting that almost the whole national team of Azerbaijan is in the top 100, as Qadir Huseynov occupies 62nd place and Rauf Mammadov - 94th place.

Meanwhile, Veselin Topalov still heads the rankings, and he is followed by world champion Viswanathan Anand and Vasiliy Ivanchuk.

A tournament of contenders or a match?

We have to say that the prospects for holding further Grands Prix are quite vague. It is extremely hard to find a city willing to host the contest. Many cities, for example Montreux and Doha, decline to host this competition, probably due to the global financial crisis. "It turns out that no-one needs the Grand Prix except for the former Soviet republics. It has been held in Baku, Sochi and Elista, and Yerevan has decided to host the final stage, while the fourth stage may take place in Kiev. Another stage is hanging in the air and it is not known where it will be held. The situation is ambiguous, especially as most of the elite tournaments, such as Wijk aan Zee, Linares, Sofia, Dortmund and Bilbao, all apart from the Tal memorial, have no "Soviet" origin. It seems to me that this testifies to the weak management of Global Chess, FIDE's partner," thinks Mahir Mammadov, vice-president of the national federation,.

At the same time, FIDE has yet to decide whether the Grand Prix will be a qualifying contest for the tournament of contenders or not, so, at the moment, there is complete uncertainty. The cycle has already been completed and the match for the world chess crown was played by Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, with Anand winning the game. Now it is the turn of Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamskiy to dispute the right to play Anand. The winner of the Grand Prix was supposed to play the holder of the 2009 World Cup and then the world champion of 2010. However, FIDE decided to alter the schedule and to hold a tournament of contenders - the two best grand masters from the Grand Prix and the World Cup. This upset a number of leading players. It is not a very good idea to change the rules in the middle of a cycle. On the other hand, it is a sad thought that chess is not a commercially attractive sport.

If we consider Racabov's chances of victory in the Grand Prix, we have to say that they are greater than those of Hasimov and Mammadyarov. "You can feel from the game that he has great potential in this Grand Prix. However, the prospects for the game over the next year are not clear. It is only known that Yerevan has decided to host the final stage and, of course, Azerbaijani chess players will not go there. What is more, Levon Aroyan, who also plays in the tournament, will have a chance to take first place by that time, and everything possible and impossible will be done to secure his victory in the final stage of the Grand Prix in Yerevan. As far as strategy is concerned, in order to strengthen their positions our elite grand masters need to perform successfully in the fourth stage, which is likely to be held in Kiev," Mammadov said.

This is what Racabov himself thinks about his leadership in the Grand Prix: "Being in the leading group, I think it is better to play a match at once, rather than take part in a new, difficult tournament of contenders. But from the general point of view, I think that a tournament of eight people is also quite interesting, as was shown by a similar contest in Mexico. But it seems to me that everything should be decided in the match for the crown. In general, to be honest, I don't mind: the most important thing is to win and it does not matter what system or cycle is used."