Chess in Azerbaijan

Chess is one of the most popular sports in Azerbaijan, where it is governed by the Azerbaijan Chess Federation (ACF). On May 5, 2009 Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, who is also the chairman of the National Olympic Committee, signed an executive order initiating a state-supported chess development program, covering the years 2009–2014.

References to chess may be found in the works of 12th century Persian poets such as Khaqani and Nizami, who lived in modern-day Azerbaijan, and also in the works of 16th century writer Fuzuli and others. Writer and philosopher Mirza Fatali Akhundov explained the rules of chess in his 1864 poem "The Game of Shatranj".

Organized chess began in Azerbaijan shortly after the creation of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in 1920, and the game soon became widespread. The first chess column appeared in the newspaper Bakinsky Rabochy in the early 1920s. In 1923 the first Baku championship took place, won by brothers Vladimir and Mikhail Makogonov. In 1924, a conference of Komsomol (Young Communist League) and trade unions set about promoting chess, leading to the participation of Fedor Duz-Khotimirsky and Nikolai Grigoriev in a tournament in Baku. Towards the end of the 1920s, a number of strong young players emerged, including the Sarychev and Danilov brothers, O. Rostovtsev, N. Doktorsky, K. Selimkhanov and A. Bilibin. Lectures and simultaneous exhibitions stimulated interest in chess in Azerbaijan. On May 2–3, 1929, a match between teams from Baku and Tbilisi was held on 8 boards in Baku.

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