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Azerbaijan’s Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov defeated Armenia’s GM Levon Aronian to clinch the Airthings Masters championship and the $ 60,000 (P2,880,450) top prize and qualified first for the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour scheduled for September.
Radjabov, number 10 in the world rankings, just behind GM Wesley So of the United States, has the distinction of having won the 2019 World Cup, earning a spot for the still pending 2020 Candidates Tournament.
He was excited to win the crown and shed tears of joy, much to the admiration of online chess fans.
“Today has been very hard. Trying to keep focus and concentration until the end and it also requires a lot of emotions to maintain this form of calm that I am trying to produce and not show whether I am happy or unhappy with my position, ”said the Azerbaijani.
Radjabov acquired big names like GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway and American GMs Hikaru Nakamura and So, who were sent off in the quarterfinal round.
In third place was GM Maxine Vachier-Lagrave, who beat So in an exciting quarter-final match decided by Armageddon, beating Russian Daniil Duvob.
The next event on the Tour is this February. So far, the Tour position has Radjabov first with earnings of $ 65,000, followed by So with earnings of $ 40,000. He captured the previous event, the Skilling Open, by defeating Carlsen in the final.
The February event is a regular 16-player tournament with GM Ding Liren of China as a new entrant.
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