By the symbolic move of the Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Azerbaijan Azad Rahimov, President of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation Elman Rustamov, Vice President of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation and Chairman of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Chess Federation Seymur Talibov, The President of the Chess Federation of the Turkish Republic and Vice President of the International Chess Federation Gulkız Tulay on the chess board “Nakhchivan-2019” International Chess Festival has started.

The first round of the Nakhchivan-2019 International Chess Festival, dedicated to the 96th anniversary of the national leader Heydar Aliyev, has been completed in the Chess Center in Nakhchivan and the results have been announced.

The tense struggle of 54 intellectuals from 14 countries - Belarus, Latvia, the United States of America, Belgium, Ukraine, Iran, Georgia, Greece, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Russia, India and Azerbaijan made its results from the first round.

The highest ranked chess player of the tournament, Belarusian grandmaster Vladislav Kovalyev (2678 international rate), met with Russian FIDE master Aleksandr Demyanjuk (2338) and ended with the victory of the first one.

Azerbaijani grandmaster, second-place rated chess player Nijat Abasov (2633) tested Azerbaijani FIDE master Aydin Süleymanlı (2334) in the first round. The intense debate ended with the advantage of Nijat Abasov.

In the game between Azerbaijani Grand Master Eltac Safarli (2624) and Azerbaijani international master Nail Bashirli (2333), Eltac celebrated victory.

Belarusian grandmaster Alexey Alexandrov (2603) defeated Indian FIDE master Mithil Ajqaonkaru (2332), and Latvian grandmaster Nikita Meshkovs (2574) defeated Azerbaijani grandmaster Serhan Guliyev (2330) in other memorable moments of the first round.

As is known, the International Chess Festival "Nakhchivan-2019", dedicated to the 96th anniversary of the great leader Heydar Aliyev, started yesterday.

We learned the opinions of Nakhchivan intelligentsia and vice president of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation, Faig Hasanov.

Faig HASANOV – Vice President of the Azerbaijan Chess Federation: – This year's chess festival is very different from the others. First, participants from other countries see how Nakhchivan is a hospitable land. As a result, the interest of other chess players to this festival is increasing every year. The level of the tournament is rising every year due to the fact that high-rating chess players also go to Nakhchivan. We should say that for the first time, there were a lot of problems-involving chess players were not so easy. Because they did not know Nakhchivan and did not know how the tournament organized. But today all the chess players themselves ask us to participate in the chess festival. We receive applications immediately after we publish information about this festival. I can already say that Nakhchivan has introduced itself as a chess venue in the world arena and this festival is one of the most rated festivals at FIDE. Another feature of the festival, which is different from the others, is the expansion of coverage. For the first time, a chess player from the United States also participates in this festival. As you know, the US championship is very strong, and the chess players who are taking the top 10 places are participating in international tournaments and competitions. That chess player is one of them.