BAKU TO HOST THE WORLD'S CHESS PLAYERS

It's been a hectic start to the year for Azerbaijani chess. In early January grandmaster Teymur Racabov celebrated victory at the World Rapid Cup in Odessa. He then went on to the Corus Chess 2008 super tournament in Wijk aan Zee where in the first round he forced reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand to capitulate. Although the tournament has not yet finished, Teymur can already describe his start to the season as positive.

Everyone's coming to the Grand Prix in Baku

Racabov has shown again in his game that current ratings do not always reflect the real strength of a chess player. He slipped to 12th place in FIDE's January rankings, but his current position certainly does not mean that Teymur has begun to play badly. His successful performance in Odessa and his victory over Anand are confirmation of this. Of the four semi-finalists in the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk three were not in the top 10, including American Gata Kamsky who won the trophy and the right to compete against Veselin Topalov, which provides further proof that ratings do not always show players' quality. 

Meanwhile, practically all the world's leading grandmasters may come to Baku in April for the first stage of the FIDE Grand Prix. Although the international federation itself has not yet taken an official decision, its head Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has already supported the Azerbaijani initiative. FIDE has an interest in holding its new baby in Baku after the high level of organization of the women's international tournament and world and European youth championships. But the main driver for the competition is the participation of Teymur Racabov and Sahriyar Mammadyarov with their high rankings. Since the organizing country is given an additional place, Vuqar Hasimov might well take the vacancy.

Discussing the Grand Prix calendar, under which six stages take place over two years, the national federation decided to concentrate on the first play-off in April. This is because our leading grandmasters will have quite a packed schedule of appearances in the first half of the year, including the super tournaments in Wijk aan Zee, Linares and Sofia. The first stage of the Grand Prix in which the strongest chess players will take part will be held in the interval between the Spanish and Bulgarian competitions. However, it's too early to name the potential visitors as many players have not yet sorted out their plans for this year.

Meanwhile, this is the second consecutive season that Teymur has begun successfully. Last year he won the tournament in Wijk aan Zee and began this year with victory in the World Rapids Cup in Odessa. The start should have provided the answer to many questions about Teymur's future prospects on the international stage. Our chess player played a disciplined game which is proved by his quarter-final victory over the favourite, Vasiliy Ivanchuk. It is interesting that the Azerbaijani grandmasters are becoming more difficult opponents for the Ukrainian. Last year Sahriyar Mammadyarov twice beat Ivanchuk and this year the baton was taken up by Teymur who grew in stature in Odessa from game to game. For example, he won the semi-final match against Dmitriy Yakovenko from Russia in a single breath, outplaying his opponent in two games. In the final he was stronger than Aleksandr Grishchuk and checkmated him in the tie-break. 

At the same time, Sahriyar Mammadyarov, who is now sixth in the FIDE rankings, has a tricky season ahead of him. The chess player's class was acknowledged by his invitation to the Wijk aan Zee super tournament where he has so far played with varying success. However, this was to be expected, as Sahriyar relatively recently entered the chess elite and sometimes he lacks basic experience of playing at the highest level. In addition Sahriyar Mammadyarov's style, of which experts say "he plays himself and allows others to play", has a negative effect on his results. While Teymur has already staked out his place amongst the best in both rankings and play, Sahriyar still has this to do. "I don't feel any shyness before my opponents, on the contrary I feel very confident, especially since I have already beaten some of the participants in the preliminary round - last year I twice beat Ukrainian Vasiliy Ivanchuk and I've also chalked up two victories over the former world champion, Veselin Topalov," Sahriyar said.

Two from Azerbaijan

The game between Teymur Racabov and Sahriyar Mammadyarov during the fourth round of the Corus Chess 2008 super tournament in Wijk aan Zee can without false modesty be described as historic. This was the first time the Azerbaijani chess players had played one another in a prestigious competition, but the start in Holland gave its own particular assessment of the skill of our players. The very fact that two players are representing the country at such an imposing tournament is further evidence of the progress of our chess. 

A game between Teymur Racabov and Sahriyar Mammadyarov was bound to happen sooner or later at a super tournament, if only because both sportsmen have quite a high ranking and, even though Teymur Racabov left the top 10 in the January rankings he is showing in his play that it is only a matter of time before he returns to the de facto top 10. Evidence of the interest in the game from both Azerbaijani fans and foreign specialists is shown by the fact that the Russian chesspro.ru portal, which covers in detail two games every round, chose the Racabov - Mammadyarov contest on the fourth day of play along with the match between the leaders, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian.

The Azerbaijani derby did not produce a winner - the rivals turned out to be worthy opponents. "The game was very interesting theoretically: the original half-forgotten Gruenfeld defence allowed Mammadyarov to level the game with hardly any effort," chesspro.ru's observer Andrey Devyatkin said. "To be honest, Teymur and I should have played each other at super tournaments a long time ago," Sahriyar Mammadyarov said. "We both have a high ranking and are in the good books of the organizers of prestigious competitions. So it's no surprise at all that we were both invited to this competition. And this means that there is an increased chance of an Azerbaijani winning Wijk aan Zee."

There are not many countries that can boast expanded representation in the super tournaments. Apart from Azerbaijan only Ukraine is represented by two grandmasters at Wijk aan Zee (Vasiliy Ivanchuk and Pavel Elyanov). Since grandmasters take part in these competitions on an invitation-only basis, it is in the interests of the organizers of major competitions to have both Teymur Racabov and Sahriyar Mammadyarov amongst their participants, especially since the former is the current Wijk aan Zee champion and has no objection to competing for the main prize again.

A distinguishing characteristic of contemporary chess is that the players have got younger. Grandmasters used to need years to mature for major victories and digest all the chess literature but the Internet has made everything much simpler. And now Teymur, Sahriyar, Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen and Ukrainian Sergey Karyakin are providing fierce competition to the older generation. Ilyumzhinov noticed this interesting trend when he said that grandmasters grow up more quickly in the professional sense.

Coming back to this season, it has to be said that it will be very busy for our leading chess players. Straight after the Wijk aan Zee super tournament Teymur is appearing in the Morelia-Linares competition, then in the start in Sofia where Mammadyarov will also be playing. Appearances in the aforementioned FIDE Grand Prix and participation in the Azerbaijani team in the Olympiad in Dresden are also on the agenda. There'll be no chance of our chess fans getting bored.