Vugar Gashimov, age 24 years, is a chess Grandmaster from Baku, Azerbaijan, where he was born on 24th July, 1986. His father, a retired army colonel who also worked for the Defense Ministry, taught Gashimov chess when he was only 6 years old.
Gashimov became Azerbaijan champion three times in 1995, 1996 and 1998, and he won the IM title in 1998 and became a GM 4 years later. Gashimov is a silver medalist at the European Youth Championship four times between 1996 and 2000. He won in the U16 group of Kasparov Cup in 1999.
Vugar won the open Acropolis tournament in 2005 and in the International Chess Festival in Abu Dhabi in August 2006, ahead of nineteen Grandmasters. In December 2007, he finished in shared second place behind Almasi at the fiftieth Reggio Emilia tournament.
Recently, Gashimov achieved one of his best results ever when in February 2008 he won the important Cappelle Grande open tournament. He had a score of 7/9 and came joint first with Arutinian, Fedorchuk, Kryvoruchko and other players, when he won on a tiebreak.
Gashimov likes the games of Alekhine because of his energetic and attacking style, and admires Anand among the modern masters. He considers himself to be a universal chess player who is good in both tactical and positional play. He is also an excellent blitz player and loves to play football, table tennis and billiards. He enjoys watching Jackie Chan films.
Gashimov’s FIDE World Ranking is No. 17 in May 2010 and Peak rating is 2759 in January 2010.
