Mamedov wins 2015 Azerbaijan Championship

by Albert Silver
1/17/2015 – The 70th Azerbaijan Championship was held from January 6-15 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Though it did not attract the nation's greatest players due to a modest prizefund, it did have a few trumps up its sleeve to bring in many other strong grandmasters, notably qualification spots for the European Championship and the World Cup. Illustrated report and tactics.

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With a total prizefund of 5000 Azerbaijani Monat, equivalent to just under US$ 6400, there was little chance of luring names such as Mamedyarov for example, while Radjabov has bigger fish to fry in the top group of Wijk aan Zee. Nevertheless, the federation had a few trumps to sweeten the pot, with a payoff at the end: the top three would earn qualification spots for the European Championship, while the top two would earn a place in the World Cup, where even an early knockout comes with a check.

The competition was held at the posh Central Park Hotel in Baku

At the top of the starting list were Rauf Mamedov (2642), Eltaj Safarli (2635), Vasif Durarbayli (2635), and Gadir Guseinov (2610), but while the field was fairly eclectic, it also included rising teens such as 14-year-old Parviz Gasimov (2517), who made waves when he leapt from a sub-2000 rating to grandmaster level in a few months.

22 players fought for the top prizes in a nine-round Swiss system event, played at 40 moves in 90 minutes with a 30-second increment followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game.

Gadir Guseinov was certainly right up there in the mix, but a last-round draw put him in fourth

Eltaj Safarli was one of the fortunate ones as he tied for 1st-3rd, but
earned a World Cup spot by virtue of his second best tiebreak

Vugar Rasulov (2491) may have missed the cut, but he had an excellent tournament and
finished with 6.0/9 and a 2623 performance, earning 17 Elo to boot

The young fellow in red is not Gasimov, but an even younger talent: 13-year-old Vugar Asadli,
who put in a 2313 performance, well more than his current 2127 rating

IM Logman Guliev was one of the veterans of the event and posted a solid 5.0/9

19-year-old GM Ulvi Bajarani came in eighth with 5.0/9

20-year-old IM Zaur Mammadov had an uneven event, and finished with 3.5/9

In third was GM Vasif Durarbayli, losing out to a World Cup spot on tiebreak,
but still earning a place in the forthcoming European Championship

The winner was top-seed Rauf Mamedov who put in an excellent result,
undefeated and a 2705 performance. For his efforts he will play in both
the World Cup and the European Championship.

Tournament tactics

Sevdimaliyev - Iskandarov

Black's attack is evident, but the White queen is still preventing instant
disaster. Black to play and win.

Mamedov - Abasov

The tournament winner spotted a weakness and pounced. White
to play and win.

Shabanov - Gasimov

Though 14-year-old Gasimov was not quite able to live up to his newly
minted 2500+ rating, he showed here some of the resources that led to
it. Black to play and win.

Final standings

Rk
SNo
 
Name
Rtg
Pts
 TB 
1
1
GM
Mamedov Rauf
2642
6.5
2539
2
2
GM
Safarli Eltaj
2635
6.5
2506
3
3
GM
Durarbayli Vasif
2635
6.5
2489
4
4
GM
Guseinov Gadir
2610
6.0
2520
5
10
GM
Rasulov Vugar
2491
6.0
2498
6
5
GM
Mirzoev Azer
2549
5.5
2525
7
19
 
Shahaliyev Ismayil
2273
5.0
2424
8
9
GM
Bajarani Ulvi
2494
5.0
2408
9
16
IM
Guliev Logman
2385
5.0
2367
10
14
FM
Sadikhov Ulvi
2414
5.0
2338
11
6
GM
Abasov Nijat
2530
4.5
2457
12
22
 
Bayramov Elvin
2051
4.5
2377
13
12
IM
Izzat Kanan
2424
4.0
2415
14
18
IM
Heydarli Kanan
2273
4.0
2390
15
7
CM
Gasimov Parviz
2517
4.0
2371
16
11
IM
Mammadov Zaur
2487
3.5
2409
17
15
IM
Iskandarov Misratdin
2405
3.5
2408
18
21
CM
Asadli Vugar
2127
3.5
2393
19
17
IM
Abdulov Orkhan
2342
3.5
2385
20
13
IM
Rzayev Bahruz
2416
3.5
2363
21
20
 
Shabanov Nurlan
2165
2.0
2429
22
8
FM
Sevdimaliyev Urfan
2505
1.5
2358

Solutions to tactics:

[Event "Azerbaijan Chess Ch. 2015 - Men"] [Site "?"] [Date "2015.01.07"] [Round "2.8"] [White "Sevdimaliyev, Urfan"] [Black "Iskandarov, Misratdin"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B90"] [WhiteElo "2505"] [BlackElo "2405"] [Annotator "Silver,Albert"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "1r4k1/3r2pp/p1bp1n2/q1bNpPBP/2p1P3/P4Q2/1PP1N3/K2RR3 b - - 0 33"] [PlyCount "9"] [EventDate "2015.01.06"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "AZE"] [WhiteClock "0:00:36"] [BlackClock "0:05:58"] 33... Nxe4 $1 {Simple and strong.} 34. Ne7+ ({White cannot take, since} 34. Qxe4 {is met with} Bxa3 {and mate is in the air.} 35. bxa3 Qxa3#) 34... Rxe7 35. Bxe7 c3 36. Nxc3 Bxa3 37. b3 Nxc3 {and White called it quits.} 0-1 [Event "Azerbaijan Chess Ch. 2015 - Men"] [Site "?"] [Date "2015.01.14"] [Round "8.2"] [White "Mamedov, Rauf"] [Black "Abasov, Nijat"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C24"] [WhiteElo "2642"] [BlackElo "2530"] [Annotator "Silver,Albert"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "3r2k1/pp1rqppp/1npN4/4p1P1/4P2P/1Q1R4/PPP2P2/2KR4 w - - 0 23"] [PlyCount "5"] [EventDate "2015.01.06"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "AZE"] [WhiteClock "0:05:11"] [BlackClock "0:18:53"] 23. Nxb7 $1 Rxd3 (23... Rxb7 $4 24. Rxd8+) 24. Rxd3 (24. Nxd8 Rxb3) 24... Rxd3 ({Black actually played} 24... Rd4 {but it changed nothing.} 25. Na5 Qc7 26. Rxd4 exd4 27. Qg3 Qd7 28. Qb8+ Nc8 29. Nc4 Qg4 30. b3 h6 31. f3 Qe6 32. f4 f5 33. Nd6 {1-0}) 25. Qxd3 {and the knight is untouchable due to the back-rank mate.} 1-0 [Event "Azerbaijan Chess Ch. 2015 - Men"] [Site "?"] [Date "2015.01.12"] [Round "6.9"] [White "Shabanov, Nurlan"] [Black "Gasimov, Parviz"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D31"] [WhiteElo "2165"] [BlackElo "2517"] [Annotator "Silver,Albert"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "4r3/5pk1/pb4p1/1p5p/4B3/1Pp2P2/P5PP/3R3K b - - 0 35"] [PlyCount "5"] [EventDate "2015.01.06"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "AZE"] [WhiteClock "0:01:14"] [BlackClock "0:07:58"] 35... Rxe4 $1 36. fxe4 Be3 $1 {Perfect. The pawn can no longer be stopped without losing the rook.} 37. Rd3 c2 0-1

 

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Born in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.

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