For geographers and common people “Khazar” is a sea in the north of Iran, but for the chess players it is a familiar name of a unique international chess tournament. Photo report by WFM/FA Shohreh Bayat.
The tournament has been running for longer than a decade and every year it is setting new organizational standards and participation record.
This year the 11th Khazar Cup was held on 1-8th March in Rasht, Guilan province, with competitions in eight separate events: A (+2100), B (U2100), women’s tournament and events for the juniors in U14, U12, U10, U8, U6 groups.
384 players with elo rating from ten countries Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Georgia, India, Latvia, Russia, Belarus, Iraq and Iran took participation. With unrated the total number rises to 613 players.
Among them were present 7 Grand Masters (GM), 19 International Masters (IM) and Women International Masters (WIM), 17 Fide Masters (FM) and Women Fide Masters (WFM).
It should be noted that the first chess-boxing event in Iran was held at the opening ceremony of the 11th Khazar Cup.
After 11 rounds of play in the main A tournament IM Shota Azaladze (2461) from Georgia, IM Hamed Mousavian (IRI 2377) and GM Pouria Darini (IRI 2514) shared the first place with 8,5 points each. Shota Azaladze was declared winner on best tie-break.
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- Mohammad Sadegh Marzoughi (1977), one of the fighters in the first chess-boxing event of Iran, also competed in the B tournament
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- IM Al-Ali Hussein Ali Hussein from Iraq landed on the 58th place with 5.5 points. He is the manager of a Chess Club in Erbil city of Iraq.
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- Kioumars Bayat, the chairman of Guilan province Chess Association and the organizer of Khazar Cup
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- GM Levan Pantsulaia (2556) from Georgia finished in fifth place with a total of 8 points
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- IM Hamed Mousavian (2377) from Iran finished second with 8.5 points and earned a GM norm
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- Shahram Salari, the Fide Arbiter, this time competed in the B tournament and collected 5 points from 11 rounds
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- Chess-Boxing event
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- Raana Hakimifard (1991) managed to earn the WIM norm after the brilliant performance
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- IM Shota Azaladze (2461) from Georgia collected 8.5 points from 11 games and won the tournament on tie-break despite being late for the 1st round
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- WFM FA Shohreh Bayat
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- GM Pouria Darini (2514) from Iran finished third with 8.5 points. Pouria is one of the most talented Iranian chess players.
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- Pouia Pourmehran with 9 authoritative points from 9 games became the champion of the U6 Tournament
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- Amin Shaabani became the winner of the U8 Tournament by collecting 8 points
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- IM Mikhail Mozharov from Russia (2523) is on 15th place with 7 points
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- Arian Yousefikia and Ramtin Tavoosirad took the 2nd and 1st place, respectively, in the U12 Group
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- FM Haik Martirosyan (2073) from Armenia, the 13-year old junior, proudly succeeded to win the B tournament. He sat behind the desk seriously and with self-confidence.
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- FM Arian Gholami, the U14 player, added 53 points to his elo rating
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- IM Arash Roghani (2366) from Iran finished in fifth place with 7 points. Arash is the manager of the Aria Chess School in Karaj city.
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- Zaur Abbasov (1853) from Azerbaijan became the champion of the U14 Group with 7 points
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- Narmin Mammadova (1953) from Azerbaijan became the champion of Khazar Cup Women’s Tournament by collecting 7.5 points
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- Motahareh Asadi, the Girls U8 World Champion, finished 11th in the Women’s Tournament
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- FM Amirreza Pourramezanali (2376) from Iran is on 17th place with 7 points
