Gashimov Memorial: Bacrot leads Group B

The Vugar Gashimov Memorial, is being held in Shamkir, Azerbaijan, from the 20th to 30th of April, in memory of the great Vugar Gashimov, who passed away on the 10th of January 2014. The tournament is divided into two groups. The A Group features six players: World Champion Magnus Carlsen (2881), Fabiano Caruana (2783), Sergey Karjakin (2772), Hikaru Nakamura (2772), and the two Azeri players Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2760) and Teimour Radjabov (2713). The B group consists of ten players, the top five seeds from various countries and the bottom five are all from Azerbaijan.

Gashimov Memorial Group B – after five rounds

The setup in Shamkir, during round five: the three Group A games are on the stage,
the five Group B games in the area in front of it. The A-Group is a double round robin
(= ten rounds), the second a simple round robin with nine rounds and ends a day earlier.

Round five, Eltaj Safarli vs Pavel Eljanov, ended in an 85-move win for Black

Aledander Motylev drew against Vasif Durarbayli in 33 moves

Wang Hao vs Radoslaw Wojtaszek was a hard-fought draw in 66 moves

Gadir Guseinov with white defeated Nijat Abasov in 63 moves

Standings after five rounds

Replay a selection of annotated games

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Etienne Bacrot, France, born 22 January 1983, FIDE rating: 2722

Etienne, who is leading this event after round five, became a grandmaster in March 1997 at the age of 14 years and 2 months, making him the youngest person to that date to have held the title. In 37th Chess Olympiad in 2006 Bacrot earned the bronze medal for the third best individual performance in the Olympiad.

Pavel Eljanov, Ukraine, born 10 May 1983, FIDE rating: 2732

Pavel has won two team gold medals and one individual silver medal at Chess Olympiads. He won the Corus B 2007 in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands with a score of 9/13. In February 2012, he tied for 1st–3rd with Mateusz Bartel and Anton Korobov in the 11th Aeroflot Open. Eljanov has made steady progress up the FIDE world rankings, and on the September 2010 FIDE Elo rating list had a rating of 2761, making him No. 1 in Ukraine and No. 6 in the world. In May 2010, he won the Astrakhan FIDE Grand Prix with a score of 8/13. After five rounds he is in second place in this tournament.

Radoslav Wojtaszek, Poland, Born 13 January 1987, FIDE rating: 2716

In 2009 Wojtaszek finished second in the Polish championship, shared second with Michael Roiz at the international tournament in Lublin and won the Najdorf memorial played in Warsaw. He won the 5th International Tournament of Polonia Wroclaw and won the San Juan International in Pamplona, both in 2010. In 2011 he won the 9th Gyorgy Marx Memorial in Paks, Hungary, in 2013 he took clear first with 6.0/7 in the 37th Zurich Christmas Open. Radoslav has been one of the four seconds to former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand since his successful match against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008, also assisting him in defending his title in 2010 against Veselin Topalov and in 2012 against Boris Gelfand.

Gadir Guseinov, Azerbaijan, born 21 May 1986, FIDE rating: 2621

Gadir played in the gold medal winning Azerbaijani team at the European Team Chess Championship in Novi Sad in 2009, alongside Shakhriyar Mammadyarov, Teymur Rajabov, Vugar Gashimov and Rauf Mamedov, previously winning bronze medal in 2007 and silver in 2011.

Alexander Motylev, Russia, Born 17 June 1979, FIDE rating: 2685

He learned how to play at the age of four and a half years and at age six took part in group instruction sessions. By the time he was eleven Motylev was a Candidate Master. In 2001, he shocked the chess world with a surprise win of the Russian Championship. In 2006, he was the joint winner of the Corus "B" Tournament at Wijk aan Zee with Magnus Carlsen. In June 2009 he won 10th Poikovsky Karpov tournament (category 18, 2694) in Poikovsky, Russia. He won the 2014 European Individual Chess Championship.

Wang Hao, China, born 4 August 1989, FIDE rating: 2734

In November 2009 Wang Hao became the fourth Chinese player to break through the 2700 Elo rating mark. In the latest FIDE lists he is ranked No. 1 in China; No. 2 in Asia and No. 15 in the world. In 2005, he became China's 20th Grandmaster at the age of 16. As with Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand, Wang Hao became a grandmaster without first gaining an International Master (IM) title. He achieved his three GM norms at the 2005 Aeroflot Open A2 Group in Moscow, Russia; 2005 Dubai Open in Dubai, UAE; and 2005 2nd Dato Arthur Tan MAS Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

GM Nijat Abasov, Azerbaijan, born 14 May 1995, FIDE rating: 2516

Nijat became an International Master in 2009 and a grandmaster at the age of 14 in 2010. He gained his third and final GM norm in the Azerbaijani Solidarity Day event in late December 2010, in which he placed first.

Rauf Mamedov, Azerbaijan, born 26 April 1988, FIDE rating: 2660

He started playing chess at the age of seven. In 2004, he became a grandmaster, following his victory during international tournament in Dubai. He played in the gold medal winning Azerbaijani team at the European Team Chess Championship in Novi Sad in 2009, alongside Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teymur Rajabov, Vugar Gashimov and Gadir Guseinov, previously winning bronze medal in 2007. Mamedov is a also a twice winner of Azerbaijan Chess Championship (2006, 2008). In 2009, he tied for 1st-3rd with Yuriy Kuzubov and Dmitry Andreikin in a category 16 tournament at Lubbock, Texas. He became a winner of Corsica Masters 2011, blitz tournament.

Vasif Durarbeyli, Azerbaijan, born 24 February 1992, FIDE rating: 2584

Vasif participated at the 37th Chess Olympiad (2006) as a member of Azerbaijani team, and was successful in tournaments like as 2006 European Youth Chess Championship, Budva, Montenegro; 2006 World Youth Chess championship Batumi, Georgia; 2010 European Youth Chess Championship, Batumi; 2011 1st Barclays International Open Chess Festival, Rome; 2012 World cities chess championship, Al-Ain, UAE; and 2013-Al-Ain classic open, Al-Ain, UAE. He was awarded with International Master title in 2007 and grandmaster title in 2010.

Eltaj Safarli, Azerbaijan, born 18 May 1992, FIDE rating: 2656

He won the Under Ten World Youth Chess Championship in Heraklion in 2002. Safarli played in the silver medal winning Azerbaijani team at the European Team Chess Championship in Porto Carras in 2011, alongside Shahriyar Mammadyarov, Teymur Rajabov, Vugar Gashimov and Gadir Guseinov, previously winning bronze medal in 2007 and gold in 2009. 2010 he was first at the Mikhail Chigorin Memorial, Saint Petersbourg. He is also a winner of Azerbaijan Chess Championship in 2010.

Pictures by Ahmed Mukhtar for the official web site

Schedule and results

Live commentary on Playchess

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: Group A – Group B The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.