National GM wins Nakhchivan Open 2018
By Laman Ismayilova
Azerbaijani chess player Nijat Mammadov celebrated his victory at International Chess Festival Nakhchivan Open 2018.
In the final ninth round, he played a draw with Sergei Tiviakov from Holland, azerisport.com reported.
Nijat beat the Dutch on additional coefficients. He scored 6.5 points. The third was Eltaj Safarli (6 points), who was ahead of Gadir Huseynov according to additional coefficients.
The tournament saw over 100 chess players from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Israel, Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Iran and Bulgaria struggle for the top prize.
Players were seeded in Tournament A if rated above 2250 FIDE, while the lower rated players (below 2249 FIDE) competed in Tournament B and U12 juniors in Tournament C.
Nijat Mammadov was a national champion in 2011.
He won the European under-14 chess championship in 1999. In 2007 Mammadov tied for first with Mircea Parligras in the 11th Open International Bavarian Championship in Bad Wiessee winning the tournament on tiebreak. He tied for first with Vadim Malakhatko and Valeriy Neverov in the 2007/08 Hastings International Chess Congress.
Nijat played for Azerbaijan in the 2000 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey and in the World Team Chess Championships of 2010 and 2013.
Chess for centuries has been a popular game in Azerbaijan with ancient roots closely related to traditions. The country could preserve these traditions as the chess remains to be a crucially popular sports for now.
The active development of chess in Azerbaijan began in the 1950s. Sports clubs such as Neftchi, Spartak, Nauka, Iskra and others had active chess departments. Azerbaijan women's championships has been held regularly since 1960.
Azerbaijan Chess Federation was founded in 1920. Elman Rustamov is the President of National Chess Federation since 2007.
The national chess players have always been taking high places at top-ranked tournaments.
GM Eltaj Safarli won the Azerbaijan Championships in 2010 and 2016. Safarli played in the silver medal-winning Azerbaijani team at the European Team Chess Championship in Porto Carras in 2011.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
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