We have equal chances of Victory: Teimur Radjabov

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The match between Azerbaijan and the World, which will take place between May 7-9 this year for the President's Cup will be one of the major events in chess, not only for Azerbaijan, but also the Chess fraternity of the world. The World team will be represented by current world champion Viswanathan Anand (India), former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Alexei Shirov (Spain) and Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine). The team from Azerbaijan includes, Chess Prodigy Teimur Radjabov, Vugar Hashimov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Gadir Guseinov and Rauf Mamedov as a possible stand by.

The Azerbaijan team leader Teimour Radjabov the only player from the team, who already has experience in this format. In 2002 in Moscow at the age of 15 Teimour Radjabov played for the World team in a match against Team Russia, led then by the giants of world chess, as Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Anatoly Karpov. The Azeri chess player had a decent score for his by age, showing a 50% result and almost forced Garry Kasparov to capitulate, who managed to escape via a repetition of moves in an almost hopeless position. Thus he played a good part in supporting the world team comprising of a no less powerful Vishy Anand and Alexei Shirov (both of whom will be on the opposite side this time).


In an interview with T.Tushiev for extratime.az, Teimur Radjabov has shared his thoughts about the upcoming game, and analyzed each of the team members of the world. Here is an excerpt from the Interview, translated via Google.

T. Tushiev: The entire chess fraternity will be watching the upcoming match between Azerbaijan and the World. What was your first reaction when you heard about the possibility of such a match?

Teimur Radjabov: If you look at the history of chess , matches between a national team and a team representing the world have been very few. If I recall correctly, there have been only four. Therefore, playing against a World team for your national team is a great honor.

T.Tushiev: You have been a party to one such match at the beginning of the 21st century when you played for the World team against team Russia. What can you remember about this game?

Teimur Radjabov: Yes, in 2002 I was lucky to take part in the match between the World team and the national team of Russia. I played for the world team with Anand and Shirov ,and, Vladimir Kramnik played for Russia. The match was widely reported in the world media and a conference was organized in Moscow at the Kremlin. Team Russia was very strong, as Gary Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Vladimir Kramnik were a part of that team, yet we managed to win.

T.Tushiev: In recent days, there is talk that the World team will have an advantage, likely to be caused by psychological factors. Do you agree with that judgement?

Teimur Radjabov: A psychological factor? Maybe. Playing at home in front of our fans is always exciting, and, but as I mentioned, the average ratingof our rivals is higher than that of our team. But I do not think that all this is of much importance. I believe that the chances are equal. Everything will depend on the form of individual players during the match.

On the opponents:

Vishy Anand - The world champion in chess, a cult figure, but Viswanathan Anand is something more than that, I would say that he has a mysterious aura that makes him always a welcome guest in any competition around the world. A brilliant chess player, succesful in all formats of the game, won everthing that can be won in chess. Traditionally, a strong opponent. Besides Anand is the current world champion, not only in the classics , but also in rapid chess.

Vladimir Kramnik - outstanding Russian chess player. He has an excellent positional understanding, defeated Garry Kasparov in a match for the world chess crown in 2000 and after that time continued to occupy a leading position in world chess. Now the ex-world champion, is fourth in the world rankings. Very strong as in rapid chess. In addition Kramnik will certainly make every effort to ensure that he gets back the Chess Crown in the near future.

Alexei Shirov - Shirov has been a representative of the world chess elite for a number of years now. As a Chess players he is very creative and styles his games on the legendary Mikhail Tal. Based on recent tournaments, I believe, Alex is in good shape.

Sergey Karjakin - one of the best young chess players in the world. His play has not always been smooth, but that tends to occur at his age. The win at Wijk aan Zee will bring him additional confidence. In any case, the participation of Sergei in the World team looks quite natural to me, for he represents the youth.

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