President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva congratulate GM Teymur Rajabov

4 January 2021 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

3 172

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva have sent a congratulatory letter to chess grandmaster Teymur Rajabov on the occasion of his victory at the Airthings Masters Chess Tour.

"Dear Teymur,

We cordially congratulate you as you won the Airthings Masters Chess Tour.

Your convincing victory during this competition by demonstrating professionalism, will and perseverance, made the people of Azerbaijan happy.

This success of yours is also a clear indication of high intellectual potential of our people.

We extend to you our best wishes, and wish you future successes and new chess peaks".

Notably, Azerbaijani chess player Teymur Radjabov faced off Levon Aronian in the second match of the final of the Airthings Masters online chess tournamennt held as part of the Champions Chess Tour.

The match ended with the victory of the national chess player.

The total prize fund of the competition is $200,000. The winner will receive $60,000.

In the first match, Radjabov defeated the representative of Armenia with a score of 2.5:1.5. Teymur Rajabov, who won the first, second and third games, convincingly won the fourth game over his opponent.

Teymur Rajabov has is an Azerbaijani chess player, ranked number 10 in the world in December 2020.

He earned the title of Grandmaster at the age of 14, which made him the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time. In 2003, Rajabov gained international attention after beating the then world No. 1 Garry Kasparov in the Linares tournament, followed by victories over former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Ruslan Ponomariov all in the same year.

Moreover, Rajabov also won the European Team Chess Championship with Azerbaijan in 2009, 2013 and 2017. His major individual achievements include joint first place at 2008 Elista Grand Prix, 2017 Geneva Grand Prix and 2019 FIDE World Cup.

---