Young and promising chess players are in the majority at the Azerbaijan Championship.
This was stated by Azerbaijani grandmaster Rauf Mammadov in an interview with "Report".
He shared his thoughts about the competition in a statement to journalists after the opening ceremony of the Azerbaijan Chess Championship:
"When I first participated in the Azerbaijan Championship, I was 15 years old and became the champion. Therefore, there may be surprise results in this year's national championship as well. Today's young people are fighting very hard. I can tell you that each of the 30 participants is a candidate for the championship. The confrontation between experienced grandmasters and young chess players means an interesting fight."
It should be noted that 46 chess players will participate in the Azerbaijan Championship. The tournament will be held between February 6-22. 30 male and 16 female participants will compete. The total prize fund of the competition is 92 thousand manats. 62 thousand manats of this amount belongs to the men's championship, and 30 thousand manats to the women's championship.