What was it like to grow up in Baku at the time when a golden generation was coming of age, led by such world elite players as Shahriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov and Vugar Gashimov?
What does the chess scene of the mid-to-late 1990s Baku say about the major socio-economic transition that Azerbaijan was undergoing then?
These are the two questions that will guide a series of auto-biographical and research notes that I plan to publish as separate posts on this blog – each no longer than 3-4k words. The objective of this series of posts is two-fold – 1) to excavate memories and socially relevant lived experiences in order to preserve and document them; and 2) engage in broader questions of freedom, opportunity and inequality in post-Soviet Azerbaijan of the “wild” 1990s, very much in the spirit of Lea Ypi’s “Freedom” – a coming of age story of a sensitive and literary talented youngster in Albania.
Blog posts 1 and 2 will describe the peak of my chess career – winning a few major youth titles in 1999. Blog 3 will be a collection of memories from my chess trips away from home – in my case these were tournaments in the sanatorium in Bilgah in Absheron in 1996 and 1997, a trip to Zaqatala in 1999, and two international trips – one to Artek close to Simferopol in Ukraine, currently occupied by Russia (Youth Chess Olympiad), and one to Marina d’Or, close to Valenica, Spain (Youth World Championship) – both in 1999. These are somewhat chess related, but mostly they cover my first impressions of being “abroad” as part of a community, and how it may have shaped me as a person. Blog post 4 will paint a larger canvas of how the coming of age tale of a chess youngster throws light on the issues of freedom, opportunity and inequality in Azerbaijani society in the 1990s. Chess as a lens to understand society. And finally, blog post 5 will attempt to connect the themes explored in the first four posts with the present of chess in Azerbaijan – both as a competitive sport and an activity with cultural significance – and say something about the times that are changing.
POST 1 Azerbaijan Championship U16, March 1999 (part 1)
Posts 1 and 2 are about my “hour of glory” — a tournament victory that brought me the honourable title of the Champion of Azerbaijan Under 16 (1999) that I get to keep for life! As a bonus point, I got to travel to the Youth Chess Olympiad in Artek, Crimea, Ukraine and the Youth Word Chess Championship in Valencia, Spain that year to represent Azerbaijan — something I would not have afforded otherwise. And besides, only the strongest juniors were allowed to play in such prestigious events abroad – having money was not sufficient. Those trips introduced me to the world of international travel and foreign cultures, and encouraged me to pursue an international life and career later. I am convinced that my desire to travel, succeed and my passion for analytical work, which is what I do now for a living, all originate from chess and the travels that came with it. Without overly dramatising this event in March 1999, this tournament victory is one of the highlights of my life, not just career — because it gave me a chance to travel, measure my strength with the strongest youngsters of the world, and, perhaps most importantly, gave me self-confidence that I could achieve great things if I put myself to them.
Without overly dramatising this event in March 1999, this tournament victory is one of the highlights of my life, not just career — because it gave me a chance to travel, measure my strength with the strongest youngsters of the world, and, perhaps most importantly, gave me self-confidence that I could achieve great things if I put myself to them.
Beyond winning the country title, 1999 was a very successful year for me more generally. I won the Baku Championship under 16 (8/9), became second in the Baku Championship among men (at the age of 15), became second (in individual competition) in a very strong Teams/Individual Youth Championship in Zaqatala U16 (ahead of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov — a current superstar (maximum ELO – 2820), Elmir Guseinov — a future strong International Master (IM), and just behind Nidjat Mamedov, who one month later became European U14 Champion and is a strong Grandmaster (GM) these days (with 7,5/9). I also showed convincing play in the qualification rounds of the Open Azerbaijani Championship, where I won against IM Ilgar Bajarani, a member of the national Olympic team just a few years back. Back then, being 14-15 and beating IMs and future GMs could be seen as a remarkable achievement, especially for a non-professional player.
It was also noteworthy that I played continuously throughout 1999, with some breaks for school, but without any exemptions from school — I had to prepare and pass exams and be a good student, just like others. So I was both — I had to — a good student and a strong chess youngster. And that all without any support from trainers or club/school leadership, without any sponsorship — all thanks to my own labour and the commitment of my parents to support me. I now see these results as rather improbable — and it still fills me with pride. But at the moment it was all too natural for me — kids have this amazing ability to take life as it comes.
I now see these results as rather improbable — and it still fills me with pride. But at the moment it was all too natural for me — kids have this amazing ability to take life as it comes.
In March 1999, I was 14 years old and looked forward to the Azerbaijan Championship (U16). It was clear that I was ready for great things. In January, I became the champion of Baku, for the third time, although I lost to a strong candidate master (CM) Chingiz Aliyev in our individual game. The Azerbaijan Championship was a round-robin with 12 participants, with favourites being Sarkhan Gashimov, a regular in international chess festivals and an older brother of GM Vugar Gashimov, Elmir Guseinov, and Sarkhan Guliyev (representing Ganja, also a strong player with much experience and natural confidence, which he still radiates in the videos online). There were also other strong youngsters — Chingiz Aliyev and Viktor Trushelyov.
One had to win the first place to go to the World Chess Championship (Spain that year) or second to go to the European Chess Championship (Greece). I have never been outside of Azerbaijan at that moment and really wanted to travel and experience the world. To “break out”, as it was called in Baku then, to get beyond the iron curtain that was not anymore political, but economic in nature — no less “iron” for the majority of Azerbaijanis. Below is the tournament table with the final results:
Farhad Mukhtarov with 9.5; Chingiz Aliyev with 9/11; Guliyev Sarkhan with 8; Guseynov Elmir with 8; Gashimov Sarkhan 7,5.
Final Tournament Table, U16 Azerbaijan Championship, 1999 March-April
Game 1 Mukhtarov Farhad – Guseinov Elmir, King’s Indian Defence, Saemisch variation
Guseinov (Hüseynov in Azerbaijani) Elmir is born in 1983. Elmir was a successful youth player, youth champion of Azerbaijan on a number of occasions, managed to become a strong IM but left chess for a successful business career, has a degree from INSEAD and worked in major IT and financial companies in various countries. He currently lives in Baku.
Elmir’s father was one of the strongest IM and the third GM in Azerbaijan — Aydin Guseinov. He left Azerbaijan in 1991 for Qatar, where he trained the national chess team. Elmir was hence left to his own devices to become a better player, which he did. Unfortunately, Aydin died not long after retuning to Azerbaijan. I met him once, when he picked Elmir and I from the airport after our trip to Crimea. Elmir’s mother is also a strong player, multiple times champion of Azerbaijan, Elmira Aliyeva. He played successfully on board 1 of the Youth Olympiad Team of Azerbaijan, pictured above. I travelled twice with him — once in Zaqatala, where we shared one bedroom with 4 boys (Aliyev Chingiz, Guseinov Elmir, Mamedov Nidjat and I) and in Artek where we also slept in one room.
I played my favourite Saemish variation of King’s Indian Defence. Elmir tried all kinds of set-ups against it in a dozen or so serious games against me in the years 1996-2000. I usually managed to hold my ground against him. In this game, nothing remarkable happened apart from the choice of Elmir to force the matters with 19…c5. So, my first game was a draw, incidentally, the only draw I made in this tournament.
Game 2 Gasanov (first name unknown) – Mukhtarov, Farhad, Queen’s Gambit Declined, Tartakower/Lasker
The second game was against an outsider of the tournament — a player from Nakhichevan, who eventually managed to lose all his games. Nothing remarkable in this game either. I have never interacted with this player again and do not know anything about him.
Game 3 Mukhtarov, Farhad – Guliyev, Sarkhan, King’s Indian Defence, Saemisch variation
Guliyev (Quliyev in Azerbaijani) Sarkhan was a remarkable figure. Now a successful businessman in the IT/HR area in Azerbaijan, he radiates confidence as he speaks in various videos available online. That confidence was already there when he was a small boy, and I felt intimidated by it, as did many others. He knew the effect that he had on his opponents and often went around the playing hall throwing bullying remarks left and right, such as his favourite one to share with an opponent before the game — “don’t prolong the game too much”. He was a successful player, had access to trainers and the latest literature (“Informators” — the Yugoslav periodicals with the latest games and novelties) and often played abroad.
I remember Sarkhan G. as an outsider in the Baku chess scene. Sporting a large black leather jacket (what we called “dublenka” – a popular cloth item that was also a sign of status) in the mid-1990s, he would arrive from Ganja to play in the tournaments in Baku. There was a telephone booth not far from the Fizuli statue in Baku (where now the winter boulevard is), and I saw him a few times in there calling with his “home-front” – those times before mobile phones! In Baku, he was respected and feared, but remained an outsider. Partly, I would guess, because he was not there at weekly Saturday Rapid Tournaments where the whole Baku chess community was present. Azerbaijani chess was (and remains) Baku chess, if you are not from Baku, you just don’t have the same opportunities and resources. The Mamedyarovs, who lived in Sumgait, did spend much of their days in Baku at tournaments, for example.
Azerbaijani chess was (and remains) Baku chess, if you are not from Baku, you just don’t have the same opportunities and resources. Mamedyarovs, who lived in Sumgait, did spend much of their days in Baku at tournaments, for example.
In Saemisch, my opponent chooses for an early 6…e5 and 7…c6, which usually means a game on the queen’s side if White (here and later in the posts, I used “white” and “black” for the “player who plays with the white or black pieces” respectively – hence a capitalised first letter) castles short. However, with the direct plan of Nh5 and f5, black allows White to castle long and start an attack on the king’s side. I was not known as an attacking player, most of my games I preferred to play quietly, positionally. But I could also strike tactically if necessary, something that I proved in this tournament to my advantage. I assume my opponent was taken aback by my aggressiveness and boldness. As I look back through my games in this tournament, I am surprised by the courage I showed.
Position after 22…R:f3
White played energetically and gained decisive advantage after a less successful play by Black. The knight is very comfortable on the central square of e4 and there is a threat of 23. h5 with a devastating attack on the king. Black should rush to create counter-play in order to avoid being steamrolled, so the best chance would have been 22…b3 23. ab3 N:e4, although this does not lead to anything either if white plays correctly. Instead, black took on f3.
22…R:f3 This is a key position in the game. White has various options — it can play 23. h5 as planned, take on c5 with the bishop (23.B:c5) or the knight (23.N:c5). All of these moves keep the advantage, but the position is not as safe for White as I thought during the game (sense of danger is one of the key capabilities of good players). I played here 23. h5 just following on my plan, and after 23..R:g3, played 24. B:c5? And this was a mistake, as the “iron friend” told me. Let’s consider a few possibilities. 24. N:g3 would have been a major mistake as it allows 24…Nb3! Taking by rook leaves the knight on e4 defenceless. The right choice was to take 24. hg6 and after exchanges on g1 and e4, white keeps its domination in the center and the attack on the king’s side, while the paws on b4, d6 and h7 are all weak. Instead, fearing complications on the c file, I played Bc5. And after R:g1 25. Bg1, Black returned the favour and played a weak 25…B:e4.
Instead, black could have played 25…Bf5!, leaving white with no advantage. The idea that both of us missed is that the pin on e4 can be rather dangerous — e.g. after 26. h6? Black has 26…R:c2! 26. Qc2 Nf6 with a winning position! So the best white has at this point is 26. Qf2 in order to force the exchange on 24 (taking on c2 would be met with taking on f5), and after the barter on e4, the pawn on b4 is not hanging and black has time to consolidate. So simple can it be! Luckily for me, Black took immediately on e4 and this meant a simple and natural play for me, that lead to a full point against of a major competitor.
Game 4 Javadov Ramin — Farhad Mukhtarov, Queen’s Gambit Declined, Tartakower Variation
I do not know much about Javadov, apart from where he is from — a mountainous region of Ismayilli. He played good chess and in 2000, I drew him in Azerbaijan Championship U16. This game could have been the end of my ambitions, as I must have underestimated my, to me hitherto unknown, opponent. I never played him before and he came outside of Baku, so for me it was obvious that he was an outsider. I was wrong. Javadov scored a respectable 4,5 in a strongly attended field and won against experienced players such as Nazarov/Nazarli (the current minister of taxes in Azerbaijan) and Trushelyov (a later IM playing in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod and now preparing a young generation there, but already then a feared opponent).
In our game with Ramin, I decided to release pressure in the center in the MBT system (the Tartakower variation) of Queen’s Gambit Declined on move 14…c4, which the computer likes, but I did not practice enough to understand before the game. And strategically, Black should keep that tension really. As a result, I lost the thread of the game. 14…Rfc8 followed by Kf8 or Qf8 would have kept me in the territory that I knew, which was my major advantage back then over my opponents — I was well prepared in the openings theory and ideas relative to my opponents.
After allowing the c4 pawn fall without any compensation, given that my opponent did not fall in the trap of taking on c4 on the 18th move (Rc4 would be met by b5, Qb5 and Ba6; on Qc4 immediate Ba6 is good), the game is lost. In desperation, I offered a draw at some point between move 20 and 25, which was declined with confidence. But luck came to my help (and I must say that in chess no major tournament can be won without luck, just like in life no major success can happen without luck). In the position depicted on the left, the White made a very natural move 30.Qd4? — centralizing the queen and offering a pawn on a2 that is impossible to take as the d pawn would march. He missed a simple 30…Rc4 and the White lost the bishop. The rest was relatively easy to convert. I just had a bad scare, losing to an unknown player (to me at the moment) would have undermined my confidence.
Game 5 Mukhtarov Farhad – Aliyev Chingiz, KID, Saemisch System
Aliyev (Əliyev) Chingiz born in 1984, was a peer and a major competitor. Our first encounters are from 1993-1994 and we both won and lost many games against each other. He is now a successful lawyer in the Middle East. I remember Chingiz as a kind although competitive player. He occasionally received support from trainers and colleagues at the club, but it was clear that he was not making chess a matter of his life (it seemed less important to him than to Shakhriyar for example). Chingiz had a steady character, preferred positional and slow play to tactics and was a pleasant conversation partner. I came across him in 2007 or so at one of the youth events, he was then set to study at the LSE, I in Oxford. We played a blindfolded game and I lost. I have not seen him since. 
This game was the only loss in this tournament, and it was a devastating loss. I remember traveling to the tournament by metro with my dad in the early morning, the games started at 10 am and we left home at 9 am or so. I was sitting in a crowded metro car falling asleep. But during the game, somehow I did not manage to wake up properly and lost without any chance. After the game, my father consoled me, bought some sweets at an improvised shop opposite to the Nizami metro station and I managed to put this loss to rest and focus on my next game. I will come back to this episode in my next post. That said, a very good game by Chingiz who managed to restrain my play very skillfully. And even today there is much to learn from this game. I will annotate it in some detail below.
1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 This is the beginning of my favourite system in KID, the Saemisch variation. White gets a strong pawn center and the game gets positionally and tactically complex. I know many players who don’t like the clumsiness of the White position, especially the fact that the f3 square is not available to the knight anymore. But I also know many who made Saemisch the major weapon, including such players as Beliavsky, Dreev and even Karpov.
5…0-0 6. Be3 Nbd7 7. Nh3 Not the only move (other options are Nge2 and Qd3/Qc2), but since the Black present White with this opportunity, why not to take it? The knight wants to prevent the take-over of the f4 square and plans later to jump to f2, where it can also challenge the knight on e5 or c5; in some variations the knight on f2 also supports the g2-g4 advance. 7…e5 8.d5 Nh5 One of the classical positions in Saemisch (the diagram).. The e5 center attack is typical for KID, and white usually plays d5, although it’s also possible to just develop (e.g. Nge2 or Be2). 9. Qd2 This move is the most common in the database and seems natural. However, after this game, I searched for alternatives and found an interesting variation starting with 9. g4, which I later used against Nidjat Mamedov in June 1999. By the time I employed this variation in March 2001 in U18 Azerbaijan Championship against Sarkhan Guliyev, he knew the theory and neutralized it easily. The idea is to force Black to sacrifice a pawn and enter forced lines after 9…Nf4 10. Nf4 ef4 11. Bf4 f5 and so on — I can review this line and variation later. White does not have any advantage there, but only if Black knows how to move. 9…f5 10. ef5 Committal. It would have been better to castle long here with a complex play. Allowing f4 does not necessarily mean any problems for White, who could chose to play on either flanks afterwards. An old game comes to mind annotated by David Bronstein in his classic treatment of the 1953 Candidates Tournament in Zurich, game number 75 Geller – Gligorich. Almost 30 years later, in 1980, Efim Geller in his book “Kings Indian Defence” cites this game from 1953 saying that the plan with the Black pushing on f4 is not promising as White can take over the game on the Queen’s side; incidentally, the same evaluation belongs to Bronstein. What a different time it was, citing a game from 30 years ago. That would not happen in any serious opening book these days. Everything is moving faster and getting older faster! I would recommend to the reader to check Bronstein’s annotations of the game from 1953, a very useful commentary for those playing KID.
10…gf5 11. o-o-o Nc5 12. Nf2 Black threatened to take on h3, which in this edition may have not been as bad for White, but I still played Nf2 hoping for 12…f4 13. Bc5. a5 13. Nd3 b6 And here I decided that it’s time for the general plan of White to put the bishop on d3 and prepare for g2-g4 (with or without h3). A similar plan worked earlier in the game with Guliyev Sarkhan, so on need to change it. However, Chingiz was strategically prepared. 14. Nc5 bc5 15. Bd3 e4! (position on diagram). This is a typical pawn sacrifice in Saemisch; Geller suggests it in the positions with white’s knight on g1 and e2, which is better than with the knight on f2. So if putting a knight on f3 (to challenge a black knight on e5 is not enough for White to have advantage, then in this position, practically speaking, Black has an upper hand, whatever computer decides to say is irrelevant. 16. fe4? I decide to accept the offer, but it would have been better to play 16. Bg5 first in order to get it out of the blockade and get a bit of a play. What happens now may be okay in terms of computer chess, but practically, playing with White in a system that normally allows activity, freedom and initiative, is a torture for White. 16…f4 17. Bf2 Be5! Total domination by Black, a beautiful bishop on e5, and in the future, this square will be prepared for the knight. I did not sense the danger here and played quietly. Practically the best would have been the plan with g3 or g4 to generate counter-play on the King’s side and force some exchanges with an equal position. But psychologically it was hard to accept such a turn of events. After a few moves further down the road, I made the decisive one — 20. Qe2 and Chingiz converted his advantage in a masterly fashion.
Having lost in this game, I stood at 3,5 out of 5, nothing indicating at a remarkable tournament. But I went on to win 6 games in a row and snatched the title from Chingiz, who confidently lead the whole tournament. He scored 9/11, that is +7, but I did 9,5 (+8). And a key to this success is not purely in chess, but also in psychology. A little episode I will tell at the beginning of Part II explains what I mean.