Closing ceremony of Vugar Hashimov Chess Memorial held in Shusha

The closing ceremony of the Vugar Hashimov Chess Memorial was held in Shusha, the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, Azernews reports, citing Azerbaijan's Youth and Sports Ministry.

The event began with the screening of a video dedicated to the life and career of Vugar Hashimov.

Then the Minister of Youth and Sports, Farid Gayibov, spoke about the importance of the competition. He said that the organization of such international tournaments greatly contributes to the development of chess in Azerbaijan. The minister also talked about the development of Azerbaijani chess in recent years. He emphasized that the state pays great attention and care to chess as well as to other sports.

The president of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation, Mahir Mammadov, said that the tournament was organized at a high level and the competition was fiercely contested. He noted that strong chess players took part in the memorial, and expressed his gratitude to those with sharp intelligence. He emphasized that he believes that the city of Shusha will host the memorial tournament for many years. M. Mammadov thanked President Ilham Aliyev for the support provided for organizing the tournament at a high level.

Later, a video showing the most interesting moments of the competition was shown.

At the ceremony, the representative of the Shusha City State Reserve Department, Ismayil Ismayilova, was presented with a special award by the organizers of the tournament.

Then the final results of the tournament were announced. Thus, Yan Nepomnyashi (FIDE) 1st, Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) 2nd, Shahriyar Mammadyarov 3rd, Vladislav Artemyev (FIDE) 4th, Aydin Suleymanli 5th, Aravind Chidambaram (India) 6th, Richard Rapport (Hungary) was 7th and Rauf Mammadov was 8th.

At the end, the winning chess player was presented with a trophy.