Azerbaijani grandmaster wins rapid tournament in Canada

A rapid tournament has been held between coaches and assistants on the day off at the 2024 Candidates Tournament in Canada, Azernews reports.

Azerbaijani grandmaster Shahriyar Mammadyarov also participated in the competition. He won the title of winner in the rapid race as well as in the blitz.

Note that Shahriyar Mammadyarov went to Toronto as the second coach of Azerbaijani representative Nijat Abasov.

Nijat Abasov reached his all-time-highest rating of 2677 and was ranked No. 3 in Azerbaijan and No. 59 in the world as of 2023.

In the FIDE World Cup 2023, Abasov found himself face-to-face with Magnus Carlsen, widely regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time.

The match between these two chess prodigies was an unforgettable display of strategic brilliance.

The 2024 Candidates Tournament is an eight-player chess tournament, held to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2024.

The tournament is currently taking place at The Great Hall in Toronto, Canada, from April 3–22, 2024. The event is held alongside the Women's Candidates Tournament.

The 2024 Candidates Tournament is a double round-robin tournament. The winner of the tournament will earn the right to play in the 2024 World Chess Championship against the current World Chess Champion, Ding Liren.

Shahriyar Mammadyarov is a three-fold European Team Champion (2009, 2013, and 2017) and gold medalist at the 2012 Chess Olympiad on the third board.

He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 2003 and repeated his victory in 2005, becoming the only two-time champion, achieving a 2,953 performance rating after eight rounds.

After winning the Essent Tournament in 2006, Shahriyar achieved world fame.

In June 2016, Mammadyarov won the 3rd Vugar Gashimov Memorial Shamkir Chess Tournament.

He defeated Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri in the last two rounds, which put him in a tie-break situation with Caruana. He defeated Caruana in the tiebreak, thus giving him a tournament victory.

In 2021, Mammadyarov defeated the 13-time world champion, Garry Kasparov, at the Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb (Croatia).