Gulnar Mammadova: The European Championship was not realistic for us, Gunay's absence was felt

It was not realistic for the Azerbaijani women's chess team to become the champion at the European Championship held in Batumi, Georgia.

Team member Gulnar Mammadova made a statement to "Report" about this.

She shared her thoughts on taking 10th place in the competition:

"In fact, we prepared for the European Championship at a high level. We did individual training and participated in team training camps. We trained in Naftalan and Baku. Gadir Huseynov and Nijat Abasov were our coaches. Nijat also helped me in individual lessons. It's just that we faced some bad luck in the competition. My teammates and I lost the victory in the match where we were ahead. Gunay Mammadzade is temporarily not performing due to family circumstances. Her absence was felt. Even with the current team, we had a chance to be in the top three. But the championship was not so realistic. Because Gunay's absence was obvious. I think that if she had participated in the tournament, we would not have been left without medals."

G.Mammadova also spoke about her performance:

"I was fighting on the fourth board. When one of my teammates didn't play, I moved to the third board. I knew they wanted me to play on the fourth board because they expected more points from me. I set a goal for myself to score as many points as possible. But that's how it turned out. I managed to score 6 points in 8 games. I consider this a good result. Until the last round, I was the leader in my board. Due to the defeat in the last game, I was satisfied with the third place. However, I think that we fought for our team until the end. In the next competitions, I aim to be the first in the individual board. I believe that our team will be among the medalists together with the men."