This weekend Azerbaijani sport suffered a great loss : grandmaster Vugar Gashimov, 28, died in Germany on January 11. The European champion in 2009, 11th place in the FIDE ranking list, died after a long illness. Gashimov was considered one of the strongest players in the world and, along with Teimour Radjabov and Shahriyar Mammadyarov, was the backbone of the national team of Azerbaijan.
Friends and relatives still cannot believe his death, and the leaders of world chess continue expressing words of sorrow to the family of the Azerbaijani grandmaster. Vestnik Kavkaza asked the colleagues of Vugar Gashimov to share memories of one of the brightest and most talented players of world sport.
Captain Fikret Sideifzade stressed that Gashimov was one of the outstanding players not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the world. According to him, he knew Gashimov from a young age, when he coached the children's team. Already at that time the young chess player provided great hopes for the future. "I remember his first appearance in 1996, when he won his first medal. From then until 2002 he won seven medals at European and world championships for children. From an early age Vugar was a very capable and diligent boy" Sideifzade recalls.
The specialist stresses that the Azerbaijani team became winner of the European Championship three times, and in all these cases Vugar Gashimov participated in the national team, while the first victory of the Azerbaijani team at the European Team Championship in 2009 is associated with his name. "Only victory over the Netherlands put our team in the final round, but three of the four games ended in a draw. Gashimov had been virtually tied in an endgame against the Dutch grandmaster, but Vugar managed to turn the situation into a winning position and brought the gold medal to the team. It was then received by President Ilham Aliyev with a reward for great success," he says.
Sideifzade adds that Vugar Gashimov was always distinguished by efficiency, a great love of chess and self-criticism. "He made an enormous contribution to the debut theory, and he was very much engaged with debut. He came first in many international tournaments, he took first place, especially memorable for me is the tournament in Reggio Emilia, where the leading players in the world participated," the former coach of Gashimov said. "He had a huge success, but, unfortunately, the disease had been progressing for 10 years. Naturally, everyone thought that it would be cured, as his was still a young body, but , unfortunately, in the last three years he virtually retired from chess. It is a great sorrow for us and for the world chess in general. He was gone too soon - and how many hopes, how many successes could he have had ahead?" Fikret Sideifzade asked.
Colleagues from Gashimov's team also shared their memories. As Rauf Mamedov, a member of the national team of Azerbaijan, notes, they still cannot believe the loss of one of the team leaders." He, along with Teimour Radjabov and Shahriyar Mammadyarov, was the main force of our team. Definitely Gashimov has always been one of the key players. For us, it is a loss that words cannot convey. A huge loss for Azerbaijani chess and sports," Rauf Mamedov says.
Another member of the team, Gadir Guseinov, regrets the death of his colleague very much. "Vugar was certainly the soul of Azerbaijani team. He was a very cheerful person. He lifted up even when we were losing. Besides, he shared his knowledge and really helped to develop. And he shared it with pleasure, and many times helped me personally in preparation for games; he did everything for the team," Huseynov said, adding that Gashimov held free sessions and master classes for children.
Guseinov recalls an incident that vividly characterizes the deceased grandmaster. "In 2011 at the European Championships in Greece, when Vugar first felt ill in the match against France, the captain did not want to allow him on the ensuing tours. But the next rounds had very difficult matches, including those against very strong teams, and Vugar said that his participation in the tournament was not even discussed. He loved his team and homeland so much that he insisted on playing to the end. The next day Azerbaijan beat the Russian team, which was the strongest at the tournament, and in subsequent rounds Vugar brought a lot of points and Azerbaijan took silver. This man did everything for the team, for the country, he loved his work, he was very fond of chess, very much engaged, and could not live without this. For us the loss is really hard," Huseynov says.
