Vugar Gashimov Memorial 2022

Vugar Gashimov Memorial was held in Baku, Azerbaijan from the 17th to the 24th of December. This tournament is dedicated to the dear memory of Azerbaijan’s genius chess player, European champion, and international grandmaster Vugar Gashimov. He was known for his attacking style and was one of the highest-rated chess players in the world at the time of his death. Gashimov died at 27 in 2014 because of complications from a brain tumour.

The format was a round-robin with 10 players. 18 rounds of blitz games followed the nine rounds of rapid games. The rapid time control was 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment while the blitz was 3 minutes plus a two-second increment.

Most of the players in the tournament had a standard rating of over 2700. The participants were: GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar (Azerbaijan), GM Rapport Richard (Romania), GM D Gukesh (India), GM Hao Wang (China), GM Pons Vallejo (Spain), GM Abdusattorov Nodirbek (Uzbekistan), GM Shankland Sam (USA), GM Mamedov Rauf (Azerbaijan), GM Suleymanli Aydin (Azerbaijan) and GM Gadimbayli Abdulla (Azerbaijan).

The winner of the rapid tournament was GM Abdusattorov Nodirbek, who started with 3/3 and in the end scored 7/9 with 5 wins and 4 draws. GM Pons Vallejo took the second place with 6 points and behind him was GM Mamedov Rauf with 6 points as well, but a worse tiebreak.

The blitz tournament was very tense, and the winners were not clear till the last round. In the end, GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar won with 12,5/18. He started the tournament with an impressive 6/7, but from the next six games only scored 2 points. After that, he had to score 4½/5, which was enough to win the tournament, after the leader Rapport lost his last game. GM Rapport Richard ended second with 12/18.

Author

LUCIA ŠEVČÍKOVÁ