Team of Azerbaijan
Members: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, Eltaj Safarli, Rauf Mamedov, Arkadij Naiditsch.
The Azerbaijani national will be definitely looking for a strong showing in Baku. World elite players Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov, current European Blitz Champion Rauf Mamedov and current Azerbaijani Champion Eltaj Safarli will represent their country and will be hoping that the home support will help them to their highest ever Olympiad finish. Arkadij Naiditsch, former top German player, who switched to the Azerbaijani Chess Federation in 2015, will be playing in the Olympiad for Azerbaijan for the first time.
The greatest achievements of the national team of Azerbaijan
All members of the team have been representing their country in numerous official team championships for many years. All of them also competed in club and team championships in many different countries and considered as experienced and strong team players.
On October 30, 2009 Chess Team of Azerbaijan became a champion of the European Team championship in Novi Sad (Serbia). Vugar Gashimov brought the victory to the team, after a long struggle with Daniël Stellwagen. The other three games finished in a draw.
On November 17, 2013 Men’s Chess Team of Azerbaijan for the second time in history became the champion of the European Team championship in Warsaw (Poland). Azerbaijan drew the match against Armenia in the final ninth round of the Open tournament. In a very important match Russia beat France 2.5-1.5. This allowed the Azerbaijani team to overtake France in the tournament struggle and become first.
During the last Chess Olympiad in Tromso the team of Azerbaijan shared the 2 place with 3 other teams but the tiebreak left it on the 5th position.
One of the strongest chess clubs in the World "SOCAR-Azerbaijan", which is also compared to chess "Real Madrid", won 2 golden medals in the European Club Championships in 2012 and 2014, a silver medal in 2015, and bronze in 2013. Since its foundation Baku's chess club has attracted more and more strong GMs, but the local heroes Teimour Rajabov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov remain its constant members.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov born 12 April, 1985 is an Azerbaijani chess Grandmaster.
The only two-time World Junior Chess Champion (2003, 2005) in chess history, World Rapid Champion of 2013.
Known for his aggressive style of play Mamedyarov always tries to achieve his best in every tournament. His notable tournament victories include 2004 Dubai Open, 2006 The President's Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, 2006 Reykjavík Open (joint 1st), 2006 Aeroflot Open, Moscow, Russia (joint 1st), 2006 Ordix Open (joint 1st), 2006 Hoogeveen Essent Tournament, 2007 Rapid Tournament, Czech Republic, 2008 Rapid Tournament, Corsica, 2009 Chess Classic, Mainz, 2010 The President's Cup (joint 1st), 2012 Chess Olympiad Turkey, gold medal, 2013World Rapid Chess Championship Khanty-Mansiysk, 2013 Geneva Chess Masters, 2013 Beijing FIDE Grand Prix, 2014 Tal Memorial, 2016 Gashimov Memorial.
Mamedyarov has long been an excellent and prolific team player. He has played in the Olympiads, World Team Championships, European Team Championships, the European Club Cup, the German Bundesliga, and in team championships in Turkey, Russia, Macedonia, Spain and China.
He played for Azerbaijan at the Chess Olympiads of 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. At the Chess Olympiad (2012), he won the gold medal for board 3 with the stunning score of 8.5/10 for a TPR of 2880.
In the World Team Championship (2010), he scored 8/9 on board 4 (TPR 2950), winning an individual gold and helping his team to 4th place. In the World Chess Team Championship (2011), he played board 4, scoring 5/9.
Shakhriyar has played in every European Team Championship since 2001. He has won silver medal playing on second board in the European Team Championship in 2003, bronze with the Azerbaijani Chess team in the European Team Chess Championships (2007), individual and team gold in17th European Team Championship (2009), individual gold (for board 3), team silver at the European Team Championship (2011) and team gold at the European Team Championship (2013).
Teimour Radjabov born 12 March 1987 is an Azerbaijani Grandmaster and former chess prodigy. He has twice qualified for the Candidates Tournament (the winner of which earns a World Championship match), in 2012 and 2013.
Radjabov earned the title of Grandmaster in March 2001 at the age of 14, making him the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time. Radjabov is the second youngest player ever, after Judit Polgar, to make it into the FIDE Top 100 players list. Ιn 1999 being the youngest of the participants Radjabov won the European Championship Under 18.
In Linares 2003, at the age of 15, he became the first player in seven years scoring a stunning win against Garry Kasparov with the black pieces in a rated game, a feat no player repeated before Kasparov's retirement two years later.
During Radjabov's earlier career, his playing style was described as attacking and tactical but later Radjabov developed into a more universal player, focused on gaining a small but decisive edge with White, while keeping his trademark dynamism with the black pieces.
His notable tournament victories include: first places in 1998 Kasparov Cup, 2005 Dos Hermanas Tournament, 2006 Cap d'Agde Tournament (rapid), 2007 Tata Steel Chess Tournament (joint 1st), 2008 Odessa ACP Chess Tournament (rapid), 2008 Elista Grand-Prix (joint 1st).
Radjabov has represented his native Azerbaijan at the Olympiads since 2002, and won his first medal at the Chess Olympiad (2012) when he won individual bronze on the top board. He played board 2 for Azerbaijan at the Chess Olympiad (2014) held in Tromsø in Norway.
A regular participant in the European Team Championships since 2003, he led the Azerbaijani team to victory at the 17th European Team Championship (2009) in Novi Sad and in November 2011 to 2nd place at the European Team Championship (2011) at Porto Carras, Greece. Toward the end of 2013, Radjabov played board 2 for Azerbaijan, which won the gold medal at the European Team Championship (2013). In 2015, he also played board 2 for his country at the European Team Championship (2015).
A regular participant in the European Club Cup, he has been a member of the winning team at the European Champion's Cup five times, once with the Bosna club from Bosnia in 2002, once with French NAO Chess Club team in 2004, once with the Ural Sverdlovsk region team in 2008, and twice with the SOCAR Baku team, in 2012 and 2014. His total medal tally at the ECC is team: 5 golds 4 silvers 2 bronzes, and individually: 2 golds and 2 silver.
Radjabov has also competed in club and team championships in Greece, France, Spain and Russia.
Rauf Mamedov born 26 April 1988 is an Azerbaijani chess Grandmaster and three-time champion of Azerbaijan (2006, 2008, 2015).
Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Mamedov started playing chess at the age of seven. He became a Grandmaster in April 2004, a few days before his 16th birthday when he won the Dubai Open.
In 2009, he tied for 1st-3rd with Yuriy Kuzubov and Dmitry Andreikin in the 16 category SPICE Cup tournament in Lubbock,
His 9th place (on tiebreak) at the 12th European Individual Championship (2011) qualified him for the World Cup (2011), where he bowed out in the first round to Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta. One of the Organizer's Nominees to the World Cup (2015), Mamedov won his first round game against Russian GM Evgeny Najer, but was eliminated from the event by losing to Fabiano Caruana in the second round.
In July 2015, he was =1st (2nd on tiebreak behind Aleksandr Lenderman) at the World Open.
Rauf Mamedov proved to be a strong blitz player by winning the Corsica Masters blitz tournament in 2011 and the European Blitz Chess Championship in Minsk in 2015.
In June 2013, he came =5th (6th on tiebreak) at the FIDE World Blitz Championship (2013) with 19.5/30, one point behind the leaders.
He played in the gold medal-winning Azerbaijani team at the European Team Chess Championship in Novi Sad in 2009 and in Warsaw in 2013 and also played in Crete in 2007, when the team won a bronze medal.
Eltaj Safarli (Azerbaijani: Eltac Səfərli; born 18 May 1992 in Baku) is an Azerbaijani chess Grandmaster and two-time champion of Azerbaijan in 2010 and 2016.
He won the under 10 World Youth Championship in Heraklion in 2002. Winner of the 17th Chigorin Memorial in 2010 (St. Petersburg). His 7.5/11 result in the European Individual Championships (2013) qualified him to play in the World Cup (2013), where he defeated GM Bassem Amin in the first round, moving to round 2 where he lost to Hikaru Nakamura.
In October 2013, he was second reserve for the bronze medal winning team SOCAR in the European Club Cup (2013). Safarli was one of the Organizer's Nominees for the World Cup (2015), but was in the first round by Hungarian GM Csaba Balogh.
Safarli played in the silver medal-winning Azerbaijani team at the European Team Chess Championship in Porto Carras in 2011, previously winning bronze medal in 2007 and gold in 2009 and 2013.
Arkadij Naiditsch (born 25 October 1985 in Riga) is a German and Azerbaijani player.
In 1995 he won the European under-10 championship in Verdun.
Arkadiy became a Grandmaster at the age of 15 and 4 years later became the clear winner of the Dortmund Sparkassen 2005 Tournament, ahead of higher-rated and well-known players such as Loek van Wely, Veselin Topalov, Peter Svidler, Vladimir Kramnik, Michael Adams, and Peter Leko. In 2007, he won the German national championship based in Bad Königshofen.
In 2011 he won the 15th International Neckar Open with a score of 8½/9. This achievement enabled him to cross the 2700 Elo rating mark.[1] In the same year Naiditsch played on the top board for the German team that won the gold medal at the European Team Chess Championship in Porto Carras.
Naiditsch won the Grandmaster Group B of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2013 in Wijk aan Zee and this victory qualified him for the Tata Steel Group A of. In August 2014 he won with the black pieces against World Champion Magnus Carlsen, playing first board for the German team in the 41st Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, defeated the World Champion in the 2015 GRENKE Chess Classic for the second time and tied for first place with Magnus Carlsen, finishing second after a five-game blitz playoff, which ended with an armageddon game.
In January 2015 he tied for 1st–5th in the Masters section of the Basel Chess Festival, winning the tournament on best tiebreak score.
In July 2015 he switched to the Azerbaijani Chess Federation. On December 30, 2015 Naiditsch won for the second consecutive year the Zurich Christmas Open. Six days later, he won also the Basel Chess Festival for the second year in a row.
