Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Mamedyarov at the 2006 Corus chess tournament
Full name	Şəhriyar Məmmədyarov
Country	Azerbaijan
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2731 (No. 14 on the October 2008 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating	2760 (January 2008)

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijani: Şəhriyar Məmmədyarov) (born April 12 1985 in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan) is a chess Grandmaster. On the January 2008 FIDE rating list he is ranked number six in the world with an Elo rating of 2760.

In 2003 he won the World Junior Chess Championship. He repeated his victory in 2005 (thus becoming the only two-time champion), achieving an incredible 2953 performance rating after eight rounds.

In 2005 Mamedyarov competed at European Club Cup and had the second highest performance rating (2913) among all of the participants (Vassily Ivanchuk had the highest).

IM Goran Antunac has commented that Mamedyarov is a true virtuoso at handling the pieces, always finding the best squares for them.

Mamedyarov attained joint first place in Aeroflot Open in Moscow in February 2006, with a score of 6.5/9. In October 2006, Mamedyarov won closed Essent Chess Tournament with 4.5 of six games, beating Judit Polgar on Sonneborn-Berger.

In the Chess World Cup 2007 Mamedyarov advanced to the third round where he was knocked by Ivan Cheparinov.

Notable games

• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs Gata Kamsky, Mtel Masters 2007, Slav Defense: General (D10), 1-0
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs Vassily Ivanchuk, Tal Memorial 2007, Semi-Slav Defense: General (D43), 1-0
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov vs Magnus Carlsen, Baku Grand Prix 2008, Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto, Kramnik Variation (E17), 1-0
• Vladimir Kramnik vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Amber Tournament (Rapid) 2008, Budapest Defense: General (A52), 0-1

External links

• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov rating card at FIDE
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Statistics at ChessWorld.net