Azernews.Az

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Azerbaijani chess player Arkadij Naiditsch has ranked third at the Grenke Chess Classic tournament held in Baden-Baden and Karlsruhe cities of Germany.

Planting his knights on b5 and e6 in the exciting last round game with Georg Meier, the grandmaster from Azerbaijan won the exchange on the 22nd move but the complications only grew as the game progressed. After a four hour long battle, it was Naiditsch who managed to come out on top and win the game on the 40th move.

The actual world chess champion Norwegian Magnus Carlsen won the Grenke Chess Classic. At the final round Magnus defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and won the title with a staggering 7½/9.

The second place was taken by Fabiano Caruana, who gained six points. During the last round, Caruana went for a well-known line of the Marshall Gambit. Needless to say, the game remained balanced all the way through. A draw was agreed three moves after the first time control was reached.

The last tournament where Azerbaijan grandmasters competed was the Shamkir Chess 2019 tournament, dedicated to the memory of the great Azerbaijani chess player Vugar Hashimov.

Azerbaijani chess player Shahriyar Mammadyarov ended Shamkir Chess 2019 with no victory. He made a draw with Russian Sergey Karjakin in the last 9th round and ranked 9th with 3.5 points.

Another Azerbaijani grandmaster Teymur Rajabov ended up 6th with 4.5 points.

It is noteworthy that Mammadyarov won Shamkir Chess in 2016 and 2017, and Magnus Carlsen won the tournaments in 2014, 2015 and 2018.

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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1

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