Teymur Boris oglu Rajabov (born 12 March 1987), known internationally as Teimour Radjabov, is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster.
A former child prodigy, he earned the title of Grandmaster in March 2001 at age 14, the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time. In 2003, Radjabov gained international attention after beating the then-world No. 1 Garry Kasparov in the Linares tournament, followed by victories over former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Ruslan Ponomariov the same year. Radjabov continued his progress over the years to become an elite chess player. In November 2012, he achieved his peak rating of 2793 and was ranked as number 4 in the world. This made Radjabov the nineteenth-highest rated player in chess history.
He has thrice competed at the Candidates Tournament, in 2011, 2013, and 2022 (where he obtained third place); he also qualified for the 2020 edition but withdrew due to the coronavirus pandemic. He won the European Team Chess Championship with Azerbaijan in 2009, 2013, and 2017. His major individual achievements include joint first place in the 2007 Corus tournament, winning the 2008 Elista Grand Prix, 2017 Geneva Grand Prix, 2019 FIDE World Cup, and 2021 Airthings Masters.
Radjabov was born on 12 March 1987 in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR (now Azerbaijan), to Boris Sheynin, a Jewish petroleum engineer who attended the same chess school in Baku as Garry Kasparov, and Leyla Radjabova, an Azerbaijani English languages teacher. Radjabov started playing chess at age three and attended secondary school number 160 in Baku. He was coached by his father.
Despite being the youngest of the participants, Radjabov in 1999 won the European Under 18 Championship, with the six years older Evgeny Postny in second place. While still 13 years old, the 2483-rated Radjabov finished in second place in the 2001 tournament Wijk aan Zee B, scoring +6−2=3. Mikhail Gurevich (2694) in first place was ½ point ahead and the player to qualify for next year's Wijk aan Zee A. Radjabov became the second-youngest player, after Judit Polgar, to make it into the FIDE Top 100 players list. With a rating of 2599 in January 2002, he was ranked 93rd in the world while still 14 years old. In the FIDE Moscow Grand Prix rapid event in June, he won matches against Ivanchuk, Svidler, Beliavsky, and Akopian before losing the final to Kasparov ½–1½.
In 2003, Radjabov defeated Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, and Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces, making him the first player to beat three former and reigning FIDE World Chess Champions with black in one year. Hikaru Nakamura repeated the feat in 2011 by beating Ponomariov, Anand, and Vladimir Kramnik. Radjabov's win against Ponomariov came in Wijk aan Zee, where Radjabov scored +3−3=7, while the one against Anand came in Dortmund, where he scored +2−2=6. The win against Kasparov in Linares was Radjabov's only win in the tournament, where he ended up with a +1−4=7 score. Kasparov had been undefeated in five consecutive Linares tournaments before losing to Radjabov. He had not lost a rated game with white in seven years, and never lost one again. In an interview in 2005, Radjabov claimed that Kasparov used his influence to prevent him from being invited to top tournaments after he defeated him at Linares 2003.
Radjabov participated in 2004 Linares, where he scored +2−2=8 and shared fourth place with Veselin Topalov, one point behind winner Vladimir Kramnik, after drawing both his games against Garry Kasparov. He also reached the semifinals (earning a bronze medal) at the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004.
Radjabov won Dos Hermanas in April 2005, ahead of, among others, Dreev and Azmaiparashvili. Later in the year, he finished second in the European Championship, behind Nisipeanu but with Karjakin, Ivanchuk, and Aronian in third to fifth place.
On February 22, 2006, Radjabov defeated FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov (2801) with the black pieces and subsequently finished second in Linares/Morelia after scoring +4−2=8 in the tournament. In November that year Radjabov won the strong Cap d'Agde rapid tournament. He won all his games in quarterfinal and semifinal against Volokitin and Bacrot, and won the final against Sergey Karjakin (who had eliminated Magnus Carlsen in his semifinal) 1½–½. In December, during the Creativity Festival in Florence (Tuscany, Italy), Radjabov lost a rapid game against Deep Junior, the chess engine that won the Turin World Computer Chess Championship.
In January 2007, Radjabov shared first place at the Category 19 Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee with Veselin Topalov and Levon Aronian, ahead of Kramnik and Anand. He scored five wins, one loss and seven draws. Radjabov was also to play the Morelia/Linares Tournament 2007, but due to a robbery of some of his belongings in Mexico, he withdrew from the tournament. His position was taken by Vassily Ivanchuk.
In January 2008, Radjabov won the ACP Rapid Cup in Odessa after beating Grischuk in the final 2½–1½. Later the same month he shared third in Wijk aan Zee together with World Champion Viswanathan Anand after beating him with white, finishing ½ from first (+3−1=9). Radjabov had an average Linares (+2−2=8), and a disappointing Baku (+2−3=8), but finished third in Sofia (+2−1=7), behind Ivanchuk and Topalov. In Sochi in August he finished second (+5−2=6) behind Aronian, and capped a very active tournament year by sharing first in Elista (+4−1=8).
In Wijk aan Zee Radjabov shared second place with Aronian and Sergei Movsesian, ½ behind winner Sergey Karjakin. He finished fifth on tiebreak in Linares after scoring his only win in the tournament against Aronian, and was undefeated in Bazna in June, even if he only won once, against Gata Kamsky. In October Radjabov led the Azerbaijani team to victory at the European Team Chess Championship in Novi Sad.
In May Radjabov shared second place in Astrakhan, securing second place in the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, thereby qualifying for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012. In Bazna the following month Radjabov shared second place with Boris Gelfand after beating him in both their individual games (Carlsen won the tournament). Radjabov finished in second place also in the World Blitz Championship, with 24/38. Aronian won with 24½ while Carlsen was third with 23½. In his 2011 Candidates quarterfinal in Kazan, Radjabov was eliminated by Vladimir Kramnik in the blitz tiebreak, after a controversial incident of chess clock malfunction.
Radjabov got married on October 7 after a spectacular performance rating of 3019 in the European Chess Cup Championships playing first board for the team SOCAR, with the team coming second overall. Later the same month, Radjabov led the Azerbaijani team to silver medal at the European Team Chess Championship in Porto Carras. In November, he reached a new peak rating of 2781. Archived 2009-08-16 at the Wayback Machine
In January, Radjabov competed in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee; the field included among others, world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and world No. 2 Levon Aronian. The average rating of the field was 2755, making this thirteen-round event a category 21 tournament. Radjabov scored +3−0=10 and tied for second place with Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, a point behind winner Levon Aronian. It was his fourth consecutive top three finishes in Wijk. In the even stronger Tal Memorial (category 22 with an average rating of 2776) he shared second place again (+2−1=6), behind winner Carlsen, and reached a new peak rating and ranking as No. 4 with 2788 on the July list. Radjabov also competed as first board in the 2012 Olympiad in Istanbul Turkey 2012, and as a result pushed his rating from 2788 to his personal all-time high of 2793, and received second-highest performance on the first board. On October 17th, Radjabov led the SOCAR chess team to a win in the European Chess Club Cup by playing on the first board, and again received the second-highest performance on his board.