Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The Shamkir Chess 2017, the 4th edition of the tournament in memory of Azerbaijan’s late grandmaster Vugar Gashimov is scheduled for April 20-30.

27-year old Gashimov, who was one of the world’s top players for a decade and who helped lead Azerbaijani team to the gold medal in the European Team Chess Championship in 2009, died in January 2014.

Gashimov became an international master in 1999 and earned the top title of grandmaster in 2002.

The world’s strong grandmasters will compete in the memorial, supported by "Synergy Group" and Azerbaijan Chess Federation.

Along with Shahriyar Mammadyarov and Teymur Rajabov from Azerbaijan, the event will host Wesley So (USA), former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Michael Adams (England), Pentala Harikrishna (India), Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine), Radoslav Voytasek (Poland) and Bulgarian world champion Veselin Topalov.

The favorite of the rating of XXI category tournament will be Wesley Co. The grandmaster is currently occupying the second place in the league table of the international chess federation FIDE, with score of 2822.

The grand opening ceremony will be held at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Shamkir on April 20. The nine-round tournament will end on April 30.

Farid Huseynov, Chairman of the Shamkir Chess 2017 Organizing Committee voiced a belief that the competition will be held at the high level.

“The "Shamkir Chess" tournament dedicated to Vugar Gashimov has become a tradition. The super-tournament, which will host famous chess players, is organized in Shamkir for the fourth time. The main purpose of the tournament is to honor the memory of Vugar, as well as to support the development of chess in Azerbaijan. The strongest grandmasters will compete for victory in Shamkir. We believe that this time again the interesting chess parties and uncompromising fight are waiting for chess amateurs. Remaining faithful to its corporative social responsibility policy "Synergy Group" pays great attention to the holding of this tournament,” he said.

Shamkir has already been recognized as one the chess cities of the world. Foreign players have always appreciated the organization of the tournaments and compared the Shamkir Chess Tournament to competitions like Wijk-aan-Zee and Linares, which have a rich history.

In 2014 and 2015, the winner of the Vugar Gashimov Memorial was world champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway). Azerbaijani chess player Shahriyar Mammadov won the 3rd edition of the Memorial.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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