Chess in Azerbaijan
On May 5, 2009 Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, who is also the chairman of the National Olympic Committee, signed an executive order initiating a state-supported chess development program, covering the years 2009–2014.
Azerbaijani writer and philosopher Mirza Fatali Akhundov explained the rules of chess in his 1864 poem "The Game of Shatranj".
In 1924, a conference of Komsomol (Young Communist League) and trade unions set about promoting chess, leading to the participation of Fedor Duz-Khotimirsky and Nikolai Grigoriev in a tournament in Baku.
Towards the end of the 1920s, a number of strong young players emerged, including the Sarychev and Danilov brothers, O. Rostovtsev, N. Doktorsky, K. Selimkhanov and A. Bilibin.
[3] In June–July 1943, Flohr won a double round tournament with a score of 5/8 ahead of Makogonov, David Bronstein, Archil Ebralidze and Suren Abramyan.
Sports clubs such as Neftchi, Spartak, Nauka, Energiya, Medik, Iskra and others had active chess departments.
Team of the Republic participated in sport competitions of the USSR nations: in 1959, 1963, 1967 – the 9th; 1975 – the 11th; 1979 the 13th; 1983 – the 11th; 1986 - the 14th (men) and 1st places (women).
Since Azerbaijan gained its independence, Azerbaijani chess players have achieved high results in various international competitions, World and European championships.
The women team won bronze medals at the European Championship held in Debrecen, Hungary in 1993.
The national team of men won bronze medals in 2007 in European Championship held in Greece.
Azerbaijani grandmasters Shahriyar Mammadyarov,[5] Teymur Radjabov[6] and Vugar Hashimov[7] managed to rise to the 4th and 6th places in the world rankings.
[8][9] Grandmaster Teymur Radjabov became the first owner of the World Chess Cup in the history of Azerbaijan on October 4, 2019, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.
FIDE, the World Chess Federation, lists 24 active Azerbaijani grandmasters, 30 international masters and a total of 151 titled players.
From March, 1981 a biweekly attachment called “Chess” was published in the Republican newspaper “Sport” in Russian and Azerbaijani languages.
Khagani Shirvani, poet of the 12th century, in his work "Tohfatul Iraqeyn" writes that connection of rooks in chess enables threat and it is very dangerous for an enemy.
Chess motifs are also reflected in works of the great classic Azerbaijani literature - Nizami Ganjavi.
The Soviet chess-players repeated their achievement in 1984, but this time in London, winning the compound team of the world with a score of 21:19.
But in 2002, in Moscow, during the third meeting, compound team of Russia yielded to the world grand, where also played Azerbaijani grandmaster Teymur Rajabov with a score of 48:52.
[59][60] Structures of the teams were the following: Women's Chess Tournament “Baku 2007” was held in 2007, in Baku, with participation of such famous chess-players as Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria – ex-champion of the world, Kateryna Lahno from Ukraine – twice champion of Europe, Monika Soćko from Poland – winner of team championship of Europe in 2005 and others.
