Teimour Radjabov

As a result of reaching the final in the World Cup, Radjabov qualified for the 2020 Candidates tournament where he can earn the right to play Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship.

Citing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and what he considered FIDE's inadequate attempts to deal with it, Radjabov withdrew from the 2020 Candidates tournament on March 6 2020. He was replaced by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

In May, Teimour played in the Moscow round of 2019 FIDE Grand Prix, and was eliminated from the Moscow Grand Prix tournament in the first round on tie-breaks by American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. During the Hamburg round in November, Radjabov was eliminated by Daniil Dubov in the first round tie-breaks. In December, Radjabov missed the Jerusalem round due to health reasons.

In September, Radjabov participated in and won the 2019 Chess World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. After eliminating Ziska, Sjugirov and Yuffa in the first three rounds, Radjabov faced fellow Azerbaijani grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in round 4 and defeated him in the tie-break series. Radjabov then beat American grandmaster Jeffery Xiong in the quarterfinal 1.5 to 0.5. In the semifinal, Radjabov defeated French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The final took place on the 4th of October 2019 where he drew against Ding Liren in the classical games (+1-1=2); in the tie-breaks he drew the 4 games in the rapid section and then defeated him in the blitz section (+2-0=0)..

"I think FIDE should take some action to include me back into the tournament, that’s what I think. I think it’s a fair decision. From my side, I think I have done everything possible. I just asked them, warned them, I also warned the chess community by expressing it openly. (...)".

In April 2018, Radjabov participated in the fifth edition of Shamkir Chess, finishing seventh with a score of 4½/9 (+0–0=9). He gained 3 rating points and reached #16 in the May FIDE world rankings, his highest ranking in more than 5 years.

Radjabov competed in the FIDE Grand Prix 2017. He placed 4th out of 18 in the Moscow round in May. In July, he won clear first in the Geneva round by scoring 6/9 points. In the final of his three tournaments, he scored 5/9 points. This put him third in the overall Grand Prix ranking, meaning he narrowly missed qualifying for the 2018 Candidates Tournament; with an extra 1/2 point in the final tournament he would have finished in the Grand Prix top two, and qualified.

In September 2017 ranking of FIDE, Radjabov was ranked as no. 19 in the world. This was the first time since October 2015 when Radjabov was able to enter the top 20 in the list. The following month, he climbed to no. 17, his highest ranking in more than four years. In November, Radjabov won the gold medals at the European Team Chess Championship with Azerbaijan national team and earned individual silver medal on the second board.

In 2016, Radjabov played in numerous tournaments such as the Gashimov Memorial, European Club Cup, World Blitz and Rapid Championship and Chess Olympiad without winning any tournaments.

Radjabov participated in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament and placed 8th out of 14 with 6/13 points. In the same year, he won the bronze medal at the World Rapid Chess Championship behind Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Radjabov is almost single-handedly responsible for the current revival of the King's Indian Defence. He even beat world No. 1, Magnus Carlsen, with this defense in 2014 at the Gashimov Memorial 2014. He is also the only top player to consistently employ the sharp Schliemann Defence in the Ruy Lopez, scoring +1−0=10 with it in top tournaments 2008–2011, drawing among others Carlsen, Anand, Topalov, Svidler, Ivanchuk and Karjakin, and beating Adams. Radjabov has been called an excellent counter-attacker, adept at seizing control after an opponent makes a minor mistake.

In November Radjabov won the strong Cap d'Agde rapid tournament. He won all his games in quarter and semifinals against Volokitin and Bacrot, and went on to win the final against Sergey Karjakin (who had eliminated Magnus Carlsen in his semifinal) 1½–½.

In January Radjabov won the ACP Rapid Cup in Odessa after beating Grischuk in the final 2½–1½. Later the same month he shared third in Wijk aan Zee together with World Champion Viswanathan Anand after beating him with white, finishing ½ from first (+3−1=9). Radjabov had an average Linares (+2−2=8), and a disappointing Baku (+2−3=8), but finished third in Sofia (+2−1=7), behind Ivanchuk and Topalov. In Sochi in August he finished second (+5−2=6) behind Aronian, and capped a very active tournament year by sharing first in Elista (+4−1=8).

Radjabov played in the 2013 Candidates Tournament, which took place in London, from 15 March to 1 April. He finished last, with +1−7=6.

Radjabov's national team won at the European Team Chess Championship in November 2013 in Warsaw, Poland. Radjabov scored 4½/8 (+1−0=7) in the tournament.

Radjabov plays very imaginatively... he just won't give up, he is extremely tenacious and will always find a way to muddy the waters to throw you off track. He is very good at finding disconcerting moves. Here he unbalances Kasparov completely, disturbing his rhythm of play... That was the point of Radjabov's sacrifice – it was not sound but it gave him these practical chances.

In April, Radjabov played in Shamkir Chess for the 5th time. He also continued his rally in the world rankings and reached #12.

He has twice competed at the Candidates Tournaments, in 2011 and 2013, and qualified for the 2020 Candidates. He won the European Team Chess Championship with Azerbaijan in 2009, 2013 and 2017. His major individual achievements include joint-first place in 2007 Tata Steel Chess, winning the 2008 Elista Grand Prix, 2017 Geneva Grand Prix and the 2019 Chess World Cup.

In January, Radjabov returned to Tata Steel Chess Tournament and placed 7th by earning 6.5 points (+1-1=11).

In April, Radjabov competed in the annual Shamkir Chess tournament and finished 8th out of 10 players.

In May Radjabov shared second place in Astrakhan, securing second place in the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, thereby qualifying for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012. In Bazna the following month Radjabov shared second place with Boris Gelfand after beating him in both their individual games (Carlsen won the tournament). Radjabov finished in second place also in the World Blitz Championship, with 24/38. Aronian won with 24½ while Carlsen was third with 23½.

Radjabov was also to play the Morelia/Linares Tournament 2007, but due to a robbery of some of his belongings in Mexico, he withdrew from the tournament. His position was taken by Vassily Ivanchuk.

In May 2006, Radjabov was appointed as the UNICEF National Goodwill Ambassador for Azerbaijan. He advocates for the cause of the universal salt iodization in the country. UNICEF Representative in Azerbaijan Hanaa Singer stated that they were very pleased to have Radjabov in the work to improve the lives of children and young people in Azerbaijan. They were confident that Radjabov would become an outspoken and active advocate for the cause, using his great talents to inspire young people.

In 2003 Radjabov defeated Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, and Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces, making him the first player to have beaten three former and reigning FIDE World Chess Champions with black in one year. Hikaru Nakamura repeated the feat in 2011 by beating Ponomariov, Anand and Vladimir Kramnik.

At the 2003 Linares chess tournament, Radjabov, who was 15 years old, defeated Kasparov with the black pieces. The game was controversially voted the most beautiful game of the tournament. Proponents praised Radjabov's resiliency and courage against the reigning world No. 1; detractors argued that Radjabov was losing and it was only because Kasparov blundered that he won the game.

Radjabov earned the title of grandmaster in March 2001 at the age of 14, making him the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time. In 2003, Radjabov gained international attention after beating the-then World No. 1 Garry Kasparov in the Linares tournament, followed by victories over former World Champions Anand and Ponomariov all in the same year. Radjabov continued his progress over the years to become an elite chess player. In November 2012, he achieved his peak rating of 2793 and was ranked as #4 in the world. This made Radjabov the fifteenth highest rated player in chess history.

Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov (also spelled Teymur Rajabov; Azerbaijani: Teymur Boris oğlu Rəcəbov( born Тејмур Борис Оғлу Рәчәбов), [tɛjˈmur bɐˈris ɔˈɣlu ræˈd͡ʒæbəf] ; born 12 March 1987) is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster and former child prodigy. As of April 2020, he is ranked as No. 1 in Azerbaijan and No. 9 in the world.

Radjabov became the first player born since Kasparov first became World Chess Champion in 1985, to defeat him. Radjabov is also the youngest player in history to defeat a reigning world No. 1 in a game at tournament time controls.

In the 43rd Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Radjabov played for Azerbaijan and scored +6-0=4 with a notable victory over Wesley So. Team Azerbaijan completed the tournament as #15 while Radjabov earned an individual bronze medal on board 2. He also earned 6 rating points and moved to #14 in world rankings.