Ahead of the European Team Chess Championship, which will start on October 5 in Batumi, Georgia, both the Azerbaijani men's and women's national teams are among the favorites.
Idman.biz reports that, based on the average rating scores of the national team members, both our men's and women's teams are ranked fourth on the list.
The average rating score of our male chess players is 2660. Only the teams of Germany (2681), the Netherlands (2675) and Hungary (2666) are ahead of them.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2742), Rauf Mammadov (2655), Eltaj Safarli (2630), Aydin Suleymanli (2614) and Muhammad Muradli (2584) are expected to participate in the Azerbaijani men's team at the continental championship. The team captain is titled grandmaster Teymur Rajabov.
The average rating score of our women's team is 2362. With this indicator, our team ranks fourth after Georgia (2451), Poland (2397) and Ukraine (2379).
The women's chess team includes Ulviyya Fataliyeva (2410), Govhar Beydullayeva (2362), Khanim Balajayeva (2323), Gulnar Mammadova (2351) and Ayan Allahverdiyeva (2220). The team captain is Ilaha Gadimova, the Secretary General of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation.
It should be noted that the Azerbaijani men's chess team has been the European champion three times so far. Our women's team has won silver and bronze medals at the European Championships.
Teymur Tushiyev