Fataliyeva's maiden title, Muradli's third
Press release by FIDE
Mahammad Muradli and Ulviyya Fataliyeva are the newly crowned Azerbaijani chess champions. In the final matches, Muradli defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to win the competition for the third time, while Fataliyeva prevailed over Ayan Allahverdiyeva to claim her maiden national title.
The 2026 Azerbaijan Championships took place in the country's capital, Baku, from February 6 to 22. Both the open and women's competitions were knockout tournaments (two-game matches with tiebreakers if needed) played with classical time controls. The total prize fund was 62,000 AZN (~$36,500 USD) for the open section and 30,000 AZN (~$17,500 USD) for the women's event.
Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!
The championships took place in a beautiful playing hall | Photo: Azerbaijani Chess Federation
The open tournament, which attracted 30 participants, began with a preliminary round. The winners advanced to join the seeded players in the round-of-16. Muradli smoothly progressed to the quarterfinals, where he defeated Eltaj Safarli in the rapid tiebreaker. At this stage, the 2025 Azerbaijani champion, Rauf Mamedov, was eliminated, losing to IM Read Samadov. The rating favourite and last year's finalist, Mamedyarov, needed no tiebreaks to reach the semifinals.
In the semifinals, Muradli convincingly outplayed Samadov in the second classical game after drawing the first, securing his place in the final. The other semifinal was much tenser and saw Mamedyarov battle past the young Aydin Suleymanli, winning the third rapid game to advance.
The first game of the final between Mamedyarov and Muradli ended in a draw after a sharp tactical battle. In the second game, Muradli took full advantage of Mamedyarov's mistake right out of the opening, winning the match and the title. In the match for third place, Suleymanli defeated Samadov twice to claim the bronze medal.
The podium of the open section: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (silver), Mahammad Muradli (gold) and Aydin Suleymanli (bronze) | Photo: Azerbaijani Chess Federation
Muradli 1-0 Mamedyarov (Game #2)
Results - QF, SF and Final
In this brand-new 60 Minutes course, Nico Zwirs shows you how to combine direct attacking play with the powerful light-square strategy to tackle the Najdorf
After the Najdorf became popular, White players quickly uncovered two of the sharpest ways to fight back: the English Attack and the aggressive 6.Bg5 line. With 6.Bg5, Black is pushed into playing …e6 instead of …e5, giving White more space to develop - and unleash fireworks! It’s in this opening that the famous Nd5 sacrifices most often appear.
In this brand-new 60 Minutes course, Dutch IM Nico Zwirs shows you how to combine direct attacking play with the powerful light-square strategy. The idea: trade your dark-squared bishop for a knight, push f4–f5, force …e5, and then dominate the juicy d5-square.
This concept makes the lines more clear and easy to remember, giving you the confidence to return 6.Bg5 to your repertoire. With IM Zwirs as your guide, you’ll not only learn theory—you’ll understand the plans behind the moves.
Are you ready to take on the Najdorf with 6.Bg5? Dare to sacrifice, and make the fireworks your own!
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Polugaevsky Variation: 6...e6 7.f4 b5
All games
In the women's event, top seed IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva confirmed her pre-tournament favourite status, cruising past her opponents and advancing to the final. Somewhat surprisingly, her opponent in the title match was the seventh seed, WIM Ayan Allahverdiyeva, who eliminated defending champion Gunay Mammadzada in the quarterfinals and became the revelation of the tournament.
Despite a substantial rating difference, the final match was very close. After the opponents exchanged victories in the classical games, Fataliyeva took control in the tiebreak, capturing her first national title.
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.Gulnar Mammadova defeated Turkan Mammadyarova 1½-½ in the match for third place to complete the podium.
The podium of the women's section: Ayan Allahverdiyeva (silver), Ulviyya Fataliyeva (gold) and Gulnar Mammadova (bronze) | Photo: Azerbaijani Chess Federation
Results - QF, SF and Final
All games
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores the fascinating world of Dutch and Grünfelkd structures with colours reversed.
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores one of the most intriguing and under-examined areas of modern chess: reversed opening systems, focusing on the Reversed Grünfeld and the Reversed Dutch. At first glance, these two systems seem unrelated. However, they share a common strategic challenge: the value of tempi, structure, and psychology when familiar openings are played with colours reversed. Drawing on his long professional experience, Sokolov explains why these positions are far more subtle than they appear and why traditional engine evaluations often fail to capture their true complexity.
Free sample video: Introduction
Free sample video: Larsen’s b4 Plan vs Reversed Stonewall Setups: Larsen - Spassky
.jpeg)
