Azeri-Jewish chess grandmaster Teimour Radjabov, 33, became emotional following his victory on Sunday in the final match of the Champions Chess Tour Airthings Masters online tournament, winning the $60,000 grand prize.
His opponent in the crucial final standoff was an Armenian player, 38-year-old Levon Aronian.
During the first day of the finals, Teimour won with a 2.5-1.5 score and beat his opponent 2-1 on the second day. Upon finishing the last game, Radjabov broke into tears.
In the match for the third place, Daniil Dubov of Russia lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France.
Rajabov is the 10th-ranked chess player in the world. He earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 14, which made him the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time. In 2003, Rajabov gained international attention after beating then-world No. 1 Kasparov in the Linares International Chess Tournament, followed by victories over former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Ruslan Ponomariov the same year.
“This is a huge deal for me. I am not the kind of person who likes to show his emotions during the game. But after I won the tournament, I felt really overwhelmed and could not hold back my tears,” Norwegian government-owned radio and television public-broadcasting company NRK quoted Radjabov as saying.
“The final match was quite intense. I was so close to getting defeated but managed to save the day,” he continued. “I wanted to give my country a reason to feel proud. Aronian must’ve come with the same objective. I just hope we can all live in peace.”
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and his wife, Mehriban Aliyeva, sent a congratulatory letter to Radjabov, saying: “Your convincing victory during this competition by demonstrating professionalism, will and perseverance made the people of Azerbaijan happy. This success of yours is also a clear indication of the high intellectual potential of our people.”
{JNS}
{Matzav.com}
Wow. Kiddush Hashem. Me kiamcha yisroel.
Oy, I read “Jewish grandmother” LOL!
Happy for him.
He is not Jewish kehalacha. His mother is not Jewish; she is an Azeri Muslim. Even his last name is his mother’s(the biological father’s name is Sheinin). Unfortunately, there was a somewhat common shameful practice among us the Soviet Jews to try to loose the Jewish last name by any means possible, hence a child in a mixed marriage often took on a mother’s last name. Kasparov is another example; a child of an Armenian mother, he didn’t have the guts to be Weinstein as his biological father. It is shameful, and we shouldn’t take pride in these products of intermarriage.
Yes I also read it Jewish Grandmother!!!