Radjabov turns 20

Dear Chess Friends,

The chess Federation of Azerbaijan would be very grateful to you if you’ll congratulate Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov with his twentieth anniversary and would publish his brief biography on your nice website.

Sincerely Yours,
Mahir Mamedov
Vice-President
Azerbaijan Chess Federation

On March 12, grandmaster Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan, one of the world’s strongest players, turns 20. Teimour Radjabov was born on March 12, 1987, in Baku. He is a seven-time medal winner of the World and European junior championships, including 5 gold medals. At the age of 12 he won the European under-18 championship, which remains an unbroken world record as a victory in continental championship U-18 at such early age.

He became an international master at 11, and met the requirements for grandmaster title at 13, becoming the world’s youngest grandmaster in the history of chess on that period. In 2002, Teimour Radjabov participated in the historical Match of the New Century, playing for the World team, which defeated Russia in Kremlin.

He was a runner-up in the Grand Prix Cup in Moscow, took the bronze of the World championship in 2004, became the European vice-champion in 2005, won the European Champion’s Cup twice with French “NAO Chess Club” team and “BOSNA” from Bosnia, won the silver medal with “Ladja-Kazan” from Russia (playing on the first board).

Teimour won the bronze medal in the 1st FIDE World Blitz championship in 2006 in Israel, won the 1st Cup of President Geydar Aliyev, became the semi-finalist of the 1st ACP World Rapid Cup in Odessa 2007, and was among the winners in many prestigeous international chess tournaments. In January 2007, Radjabov won one of the most important tournaments of the chess calendar – Corus Wijk aan Zee.

The Azeri grandmaster has wins against many world’s strongest top players, including the world champions such as Karpov, Kasparov, Anand, Ponomariov and Topalov. He heads the national team of Azerbaijan since he turned 14.

Recently a book dedicated to chess prodigies such as Capablanca, Fischer, Kasparov, Polgar etc., was published in Russia. One of the chapters is dedicated to Teimour Radjabov. Teimour is a student of Baku State University, Law Department. He is a Goodwill Ambassador of the UNICEF since 2006.