Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The third Vugar Gashimov Memorial, Shamkir Chess 2016, will take place in Azerbaijan’s region of Shamkir this May.

The international tournament devoted to Azerbaijan's late grandmaster Vugar Gashimov will be supported by the investment company Synergy Group.

The event will bring together world-famous chess grandmasters, as well as welcome the winner of the previous memorials, world champion Magnus Carlsen. Last year the fund price of the 10-day tournament was €100,000.

Of note March will see the Azerbaijani Championship, and the winners of the competition will win the right to participate in the Vugar Gashimov Memorial.

Renowned rapid and blitz player, Vugar Gashimov, was one of several highly talented young grandmasters from Azerbaijan who have risen to prominence in world chess in recent years.

The talented chess player won the Azerbaijan national championships of 1995, 1996 and 1998, but these are likely to have been youth championships given his age at the time of these events.

Gashimov’s first significant tournament success was to win the U16 Kasparov Cup in 1999, which he did with a round to spare. In 2002, the 15-year old Vugar earned his first GM norm when he won the category 7 Alushtinskaja Spring International held in Ukraine.

The 19 year-old GM took clear first place at Acropolis 2005 with 6.5/9 and won the category 18 Reggio Emilia in 2010. The Tata Steel 2012 became the last tournament in his life.

After his early successes, Gashimov had to put his activities on hold for a while for a surgery. His disease re-surfaced in 2011, causing him to suddenly lose consciousness during a match against the French national team in the European Championship. Then a long-term treatment in Switzerland and Germany began, but he failed to beat the disease.

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

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