The Azerbaijani men's chess team has achieved the third victory in the European Championship in recent years thanks to their skills and desire to win, and showed their best game, Azerbaijani chess players said, speaking with correspondents of Vestnik Kavkaza.
The member of the national team Rauf Mammadov, who played all nine rounds with seven victories and two draws, said that the European championship was won by the national team, which has been striving for it more than anyone else, adding that the most difficult games were against the national team of Armenia and Russia.
"Personally, for me, the most difficult game was against the Armenians. But the fortune smiled at me, and after that we defeated Hungary and Russia," Rauf Mammadov said (during that match Shahriyar Mamedyarov lost to Levon Aronian, Arkadiy Naydich ended up in a draw against Gabriel Sargsyan, Teymur Radjabov defeated Sergey Movsesyan, while Rauf Mammadov's victory over Grant Melkumyan was decisive).
Among other things, the high motivation not to yield to Armenia also helped them to win. "They say that there is no politics in sport, but we all perfectly understand that such matches as Ukraine-Russia and Azerbaijan-Armenia in the chess world are always of principle importance for both sides," the grandmaster pointed out.
The match with Russia was really decisive,it became clear after it that Azerbaijan has all chances to become a three-time European champion. "In my opinion, the match with Russia was one of the best in the history of the Azerbaijani team, it was a real show, starting a match with 3-0 was fantastic," he admitted.
At the same time, Azerbaijan started the tournament with an unsuccessful start, losing to the Italian team. "After the Olympiad we proved that we are a chess country, I hope next year in Batumi we will prove it again," Rauf Mammadov expects.
First Vice-President of the Azerbaijani Chess Federation Faig Hasanov drew attention to the fact that at the current level of world chess, even relatively weak teams can defeat leaders, which explains the defeat from Italy. "The loss to Italy, which is the 22nd in the world, was a surprise, because we always defeated them," he said.
"The most intense game was with Armenia, the victory in this match gave impetus to our players in the remaining matches. The principle game was against Russia - after this game we became sure that we will become champions, "Faig Hasanov confirmed Rauf Mammadov's words.
Team's captain Eltaj Safarli also noted that after the loss to Italy the team got together and continued the tournament with the intention to show the best result. "Our preparation was good and we won in the end. At the last six European championships we won five medals - three gold medals, one silver and one bronze, only in Reykjavik in 2015 we did not win any medals," he stressed.
"Armenia has very strong grandmasters, but we were prepared and won confidently. After that, we defeated the Russian national team with a score of 3:1, defeated the Hungarian national team and the national team of Ukraine in the finals. We could not defeat the Ukrainians, but we calculated that a draw would be enough to be ahead of Russia," Eltaj Safarli said.
The victory brought the team not only the championship, but also the growth of the Azerbaijani chess players' positions in the world ranking. "Now we have four chess players with a rating of 2700+, Shahriyar Mammadyarov's rating is 2800+. I think that now our team is one of the strongest not only in Europe but also in the world. Shahriyar Mammadyarov is among the top three of the world players, Rauf Mammadov is a very strong chess player, Teimour Radjabov is also very strong. Of course, being a captain and coach is not such a simple job, it's a very big responsibility," the captain of the team said.
