Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

In April 2018, he participated in the fifth edition of the Gashimov Memorial, finishing fourth with a score of 4½/9 (+1–1=7).

From 28 May to 7 June 2018, he competed in the sixth edition of Norway Chess, placing seventh with 3½/8 (+0–1=7).

From 22nd July 2018 to 1st August, he competed in the 51st Biel Chess Festival, winning the event by one-and-a-half points ahead of Magnus Carlsen.

In the 2018 cycle, he qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2018 by winning the FIDE Grand Prix 2017. He finished as a runner-up in Candidates one point behind Caruana, with a score of 8/14.

In April 2017, Mamedyarov won the Vugar Gashimov Memorial for the second year in a row with a score of 5½/9.

In June 2016, Mamedyarov won the 3rd Shamkir Chess Tournament, the Vugar Gashimov Memorial. He defeated both top seeds Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri in the last two rounds, which put him in a tiebreak situation with Caruana. He defeated Caruana in the tiebreak, thus giving him tournament victory.

He failed to qualify for the 2016 Candidates. He came sixth in the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, and was knocked out in the quarter finals of the Chess World Cup 2015 by eventual winner Sergey Karjakin.

In November 2014, he won the Tal Memorial for the second time.

In the 2014 cycle, he qualified for the Candidates tournament by coming second in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13. He finished fourth in the Candidates, with a score of 7/14.

In June 2013, Mamedyarov won the World Rapid Chess Championship, scoring 11½/15. The next month he won the Geneva Masters rapid event.

A gold medalist at the 2012 Chess Olympiad on the third board, he is a three-time European Team Champion (2009, 2013, 2017) with Azerbaijan. He is also a two-time winner at Tal Memorial (2010 joint and 2014 Blitz) and Shamkir Chess (2016 and 2017), as well as the winner of 2018 Biel Chess Festival where he beat reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

Mamedyarov has competed in the Candidates Tournament in 2011 (eliminated in quarterfinals), in 2014 (placing fourth) and in 2018 (placing second). He is a two-time World Junior Champion (2003 and 2005) and was World Rapid Champion in 2013.

In 2011, Mamedyarov was the tournament organisers' nominee, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012, where he lost to Boris Gelfand in the first round.

In 2010, he tied for first place with Vladimir Kramnik and Gata Kamsky at the President's Cup in Baku, followed by joint first in the Tal Memorial.

In 2008 he won the Corsican Circuit rapid knockout.

At the Chess World Cup 2007 Mamedyarov reached the third round where he was knocked out by Ivan Cheparinov.

Mamedyarov attained joint first place at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow in February 2006, with a score of 6½/9. In May he won the combined FiNet/Ordix rapid event. In October 2006, he won the closed Essent Chess Tournament in Hoogeveen with 4½/6, beating Judit Polgár on Sonneborn-Berger tie-breaks.

In 2005 Mamedyarov competed at the European Club Cup and had the second-highest performance rating (2913), after Vassily Ivanchuk, of all of the participants.

In 2003 he won the World Junior Chess Championship. He repeated his victory in 2005, becoming the only two-time champion, achieving a 2953 performance rating after eight rounds, earning an invitation to the Essent Tournament 2006 in Hoogeveen, and after winning this and the 2007 edition, Mamedyarov achieved world fame.

He played for Azerbaijan at the Chess Olympiads of 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018. In 2009,2013 and 2017 he won the team gold medal for Azerbaijan at the European Team Chess Championship, having won the bronze medal in 2007 and silver in 2011.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijani: Şəhriyar Həmid oğlu Məmmədyarov; born 12 April 1985) is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster. As of November 2019, he is ranked as No. 1 in Azerbaijan and No. 5 in the world. His personal best rating of 2820 makes him the sixth-highest-rated player of all time in chess history.

Shakhriyar's parents are from the Zangilan District of Azerbaijan, which is now occupied by Armenia. In 1980, his family moved to the then-flourishing industrial city of Sumqayit, Azerbaijan, where Shakhriyar was born. His first chess trainer was his father, who is also a former boxer and taught boxing to Shakhriyar for some time. Mamedyarov has two sisters, Zeinab Mamedyarova and Turkan Mamedyarova, who are Woman Grandmasters. Mamedyarov got married in 2012, but got divorced for unknown reasons. He remarried in July 2017.