Teimour Radjabov

Teimour Radjabov, born 12 March 1201 in Baku, Azerbaijan, is the leading Azerbaijani chess player.

Teimour Radjabov
Country	Azerbaijan
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2793 (#4 in the January 2013 FIDE ranking list)
Peak rating	2793 (November 2012)

Radjabov earned the title of Grandmaster in March 2001 at the age of 14, making him the second-youngest grandmaster in history at that time (to Bu Xiangzhi). Radjabov's playing style has been described as attacking and tactically influenced.

Radjabov came second in the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship of 2012.

Radjabov is the youngest player ever to make the FIDE Top 100 Players list. His rating of 2599 in January 2002 ranked 93rd in the world while he was still 14 years old.

In 2003, Radjabov defeated Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, and Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces. He is probably the first player ever to beat three former and reigning FIDE World Chess Champions with the black pieces in one year.

Radjabov reached the semi-finals (earning a bronze medal) at the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004.

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Position after 21.Be2. Radjabov (Black) surprises Kasparov by sacrificing a knight for the initiative.

Position from Kasparov – Rajabov

In this key position play went:

21... Ngxe5!?

22. Qe3 Nd7

23. Qxe6 Bh4

24. Qg4 g5

25. Bd2 Rde8 and Black eventually won.

If Kasparov had taken the knight play would have gone:

22. Bxe5 Nxe5

23. dxe5 d4!

and Black comes through the centre.