TEIMUR RADJABOV: WE BELIEVE COMMON SENSE WILL PREVAIL

Chessbase News, Germany
Nov 12 2007

12.11.2007 – At the European Championship Azerbaijan won Bronze behind
Russia and Armenian. The latter are historical enemies of the Azeris,
politically, culturally and in chess. Teimour Radjabov, the star of the
Azerbaijani team, gave vent to his personal feelings in a startling
interview. Now he has written to us to modify his statements. APA
interview and corrections.

Teimur Radjabov: The enemy is the enemy – we all hate Armenians

The head of the Azerbaijani national chess team that won the bronze
medal at the European Team Championship, behind Russia and Armenia,
Teimour Radjabov, gave an exclusive interview to the Russian language
sports news agency APA. It contains some very startling comments.

On the Bronze Medal win at the European Championship: This is of course
a great success. I think our players competed well – we should not
forget that European chess is the strongest in the world. I am sure
that we will achieve more success in future.

On the clash with Russia, after leading until round five: We lost to
the main favorites of the European Championship, the Russian team,
and it had a bad influence on me. We lost three games in round five,
and one ended in a draw. But this score does not reflect the potential
of our players at all. Before competing with the Russians we were
thinking about defeating our rivals. We were scoring well until that
round. The Russians defeated us and won the gold medals.

On the loss to Slovenia in round six: We did not think about losing
to them. We took risks and that led to our defeat, an unexpected
defeat. I think we are to blame, as we did not assess our opponents
correctly. We thought that we would win without any difficulty.

On the draw against Armenia in round eight: Of course we had chance
to win it. But the situation changed gradually. Vladimir Akopian
offered me a draw, after Shahriyar [Mamedyarov] and Rauf [Mamedov]
had finished their games with draws. I did not accept, because by
then Vugar [Gashimov] had a bad position. He lost, so I had to defeat
Akopian to draw the match, and I managed to do it.

On the team’s feelings before this round eight match: I will not deny
that we were very nervous. Regardless of where we meet, the enemy is
the enemy. We all have feelings of hate towards them. But you must
try to suppress those feelings and not let them interfere. Chess must
be played with a sober head.

On the atmosphere in the hall at the time: The Armenians had a lot of
active fans. The Armenian Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian had arrived
there, and I saw him in the hall during most matches. The President
of our federation, Elman Rustamov, also attended our match with the
Armenians and supported us. We understood the importance of the match
and adhered to the principles of the encounter.

On the roots of this first historical success for the national team:
First of all collective fight. Friendship in the team was one of
the main factors. We thought about the team first of all. None of
the sportsmen fought to improve his personal rating. This is very
important. Our failure in the previous competitions worried us,
as we felt that we had the capability to win medals.

On whether the team is capable of winning greater victories: I believe
in it. Though our team has been composed of teenagers, we are known in
the chess world. All teams fear and respect us. We are in the list of
the strongest national teams of the world. For the first time, we have
two Azerbaijani chess player is placed in the top ten in the world,
which shows that our chess occupies a high place. I do not doubt we
will win greater victories in future competitions. The world team
championship is being discussed at the moment. Our team is the bronze
medalist of the European Championship and so should also participate
in this competition, which will involve the ten strongest countries
in the world. But I heard they want to give the right to organize the
competition to Armenia, and in this case, our team will not be able
to take part. If Armenia is commissioned to organize the competition,
our federation will appeal to FIDE.

On his your target at the World Cup in Khanti-Mansiysk, Russia: The
competition will start on November 24. I am still trying to rest
after European Championship. That’s why I will not participate in
the Mikhail Tal Memorial. As the World Cup is held according to the
knockout system, one defeat is decisive. That’s why I will do my best
to be very careful and move forward step-by-step. If I achieve it,
I can expect success there.

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