Teimour Radjabov

Infobox chess player
playername = Teimour Radjabov


caption=
birthname = Teymur Rəcəbov
country = AZE
datebirth = birth date and age|1987|3|12
placebirth = Baku, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR
datedeath =
placedeath =
title = Grandmaster
worldchampion =
womensworldchampion =
rating = 2744
(No. 7 on the July 2008 FIDE ratings list)
peakrating = 2751 (April 2008)

Teimour Radjabov, also spelled Teymur Rajabov ( _az. Teymur Rəcəbov; born March 12 1987 in Baku, Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR), is a leading Azerbaijani chess player. On the April 2008 FIDE list, Radjabov has an Elo rating of 2751, ranking eighth in the world and second in his native Azerbaijan. Radjabov earned the title of International Grandmaster in March 2001 at the age of 14, making him the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time. [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsprint.asp?newsid=2858 ChessBase.com - Chess News - Chess prodigies and mini-grandmasters ] ] Radjabov's playing style has been described as attacking and tactically influenced. [ [http://www.coruschess.com/participants.php?year=2003&group=1&bio=13 Corus Chess 2003 - Biography of Teymour Radjabov ] ] [ [http://80.237.188.68/shop/product.asp?pid=307 Chess software - ChessBase Magazine 115 ] ]

Radjabov and Kasparov

Radjabov's name is often mentioned in conjunction with that of former world champion Garry Kasparov. Both are from Baku, Azerbaijan and both men have Jewish fathers. [ [http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hans55.pdf Dutch Treat ] ] Radjabov's lifetime score against Kasparov at standard time controls is 1 win, 3 draws and no losses. [ [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?pid=49796&pid2=15940 CHESSGAMES.COM * Free online chess game search engine ] ] (Kasparov's only win was in rapid chess. [ [http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic396.html The Week in Chess 396 ] ] )

At the 2003 Linares chess tournament, Radjabov, who was 15 at the time, famously defeated Kasparov with the black pieces in a wild tactical affair out of the French Defense, thus becoming the youngest player ever to defeat the world's number one player in tournament play. The game was later voted the most beautiful game of the tournament, generating an angry outburst from Kasparov. [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=851 ChessBase.com - Chess News - Kasparov's outburst over beauty prize in Linares ] ]

Chess diagram|=
tleft|
=
| |kd|rd| | | |rd|=
| | | |bd| |pd| |=
pd|qd|nd| |pd| | | |=
|pd| |pd|pl| | | |=
| |pd|pl| |bl|nd| |=
pl| |pl| | | |nl| |=
|pl| |ql|bl| | |pl|=
rl| | | |kl| | |rl|=
In this position Radjabov surprises Kasparov by sacrificing a knight for the initiative.

:1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Be3 a6 8. Qd2 b5 9. a3 Qb6 10. Ne2 c4 11. g4 h5 12. gxh5 Rxh5 13. Ng3 Rh8 14. f5 exf5 15. Nxf5 Nf6 16. Ng3 Ng4 17. Bf4 Be6 18. c3 Be7 19. Ng5 O-O-O 20. Nxe6 fxe6 21. Be2 (Diagram)

:21...Ngxe5!?Radjabov's knight sacrifice, 21. ... Ngxe5, was praised by several strong players for its bravery, including English grandmaster Nigel Short. Said Short of the move, "Radjabov plays very imaginatively... he just won't give up, he is extremely tenacious and will always find a way to muddy the waters to throw you off track. He is very good at finding disconcerting moves. Here he unbalances Kasparov completely, disturbing his rhythm of play. The move probably caused the Great Player to fall off his chair." Continued Short, "Instead of simply allowing Kasparov to grind him down he unbalanced the game with his knight sacrifice, and six moves later Kasparov had blundered. That was the point of Radjabov's sacrifice – it was not sound but it gave him these practical chances." [ [http://www.chessbase.com/eventarticle.asp?newsid=851 ChessBase.com - Chess News - Kasparov's outburst over beauty prize in Linares ] ]

:22. Qe3 Nd7 23. Qxe6 Bh4 24. Qg4 g5 25. Bd2 Rde8 26. O-O-O Na5 27. Rdf1??Considered to be the decisive mistake

:27...Nb3+ 28. Kd1 Bxg3White cannot recapture the bishop due to the immediate threat of Qg6

:29. Rf7 Rd8 30. Bxg5 Qg6 31. Qf5 Qxf5 32. Rxf5 Rdf8 33. Rxf8+ Nxf8 34. Bf3 Bh4 35. Be3 Nd7 36. Bxd5 Re8 37. Bh6 Ndc5 38. Bf7 Re7 39. Bh5 Nd3 0-1.

Radjabov became the first player born since Kasparov first became World Chess Champion in 1985 to defeat him. It is also believed that Radjabov became the youngest player in history to defeat a reigning world #1 in a game at tournament time controls.Fact|date=May 2007

Other Career Highlights

Radjabov is the youngest player ever to make the FIDE Top 100 Players list. His rating of 2599 in January 2002 ranked 93rd in the world while he was still 14 years old. [http://fide.com/ratings/toplist.phtml?list=men]

In 2003, Radjabov defeated Viswanathan Anand and Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces. He is probably the first player ever to beat three former and reigning FIDE World Chess Champions with the black pieces in one year.Fact|date=May 2007

Radjabov reached the semi-finals (earning a bronze medal) at the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004.

On February 22, 2006, Teimour defeated FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov (rated 2801) with the black pieces [ [http://www.chessbase.com/news/2006/linares/games/linares04.htm Super GM Linares-Morelia ] ] and subsequently won the second prize at the Super GM Tournament held in Morelia, Mexico and Linares, Spain. [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2974 ChessBase.com - Chess News - Linares R14: Levon Aronian wins Morelia/Linares Super-GM ] ]

Radjabov represented his native Azerbaijan at the 37th Chess Olympiad in May and June 2006, playing board one for the Azeri team. [ [http://www.ruschess.com/News/2006/Olymp/teams.html The 37th Chess Olympiad ] ]

In an interview given on October 2006, Radjabov said that he will challenge the winner of Topalov-Kramnik unification match to a World Championship match under the rules of FIDE. [ [http://chesslodge.blogspot.com/2006/10/gm-teimour-radjabov-speaks-for-wcn.html Chess news and events: Interview: Teimour Radjabov ] ]

In November 2006, Radjabov won strong Cap d'Agde tournament, advancing from second place of round robin to the elimination phase. He then went on to win the final against Sergey Karjakin

On 3rd December 2006, during the Creativity Festival [http://www.festivaldellacreativita.it/festival.asp] in Florence(Tuscany, Italy), Radjabov played against Deep Junior, the chess engine that won the Turin World Computer Chess Championship. The match was won by Deep Junior. [http://www.macchinacrea.editarea.com]

In January 2007, Radjabov finished in joint first place at the Category 19 Corus Chess Tournament along with Veselin Topalov and Levon Aronian. [ [http://coruschess.com/report.php?year=2007&report=13 Corus Chess 2007 - Report of round 13 - CCT 2007 ] ]

Radjabov was also to play the Morelia/Linares Tournament 2007, but due to a robbery of some of his belongings in Mexico, he withdrew from the tournament. His position was taken by Vassily Ivanchuk. [ [http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/radjlinmor07.html Teimour Radjabov withdraws from Morelia - Linares 2007 ] ]

To a question on how he felt about playing against the Armenian team, Teimour Radjabov, answered "..enemy is the enemy. We all hate them." He later issued a clarification, saying statements were sometimes attributed to him "in a supernormal form," and that while "we do not have simple relations with Armenia," he would "never stoop to pathological nationalism." [ [http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4245 Teymur Rajabov: The enemy is the enemy, we all hate Armenians] , Chessbase, 12-11-2007] In November 14, 2007, in his speech for the FIDE congress in Turkey, the President of FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov condemned Radjabov's words as "not permissible". [ [http://www.regnum.ru/news/916026.html Президент ФИДЕ считает недопустимыми "шахматно-политические" обвинения Азербайджана, Regnum, 15-11-2007 (in Russian)] ] .

Recent news

On May 11, 2007 he was appointed as the UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador for Azerbaijan. Teimour said he will advocate for the cause of the universal salt iodization in the country. UNICEF Representative in Azerbaijan Hanaa Singer stated that they were very pleased to have Teimour in the work to improve the lives of children and young people in Azerbaijan. They were confident that Teimour would become an outspoken and active advocate for the cause, using his great talents to inspire young people.Recently on the 24th of december, Radjabov Teimour defeated the Lebanese Chess Champion Ali el-Hajj Sleiman with the black pieces in a wild tactical affair out of the French Defense. [ [http://azernews.net/view.php?d=8313] Dead link|date=July 2008]

References

External links

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* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1260681 Kasparov vs Radjabov, 0-1 (requires Java plugin)]