OMM Newsroom
Azerbaijani chess player Mahammad Muradly has scored one point after four rounds at the KazChess Masters international tournament in Almaty, Kazakhstan. According to ChessBase, the grandmaster, rated 2,662 and considered the tournament’s main favorite, lost his first two games.
Muradly lost to Belarusian Denis Lazavik in the first round. In a game that began with the Sicilian Defense, the Azerbaijani player made a risky decision on move 28. Lazavik took the advantage in the ensuing moves and forced his opponent to resign on move 32.
Muradly lost to Uzbekistan’s Shamsiddin Vokhidov in the second round and drew with Kazakhstan’s 16-year-old grandmaster Edgar Mamedov in the third. He had half a point after the first three rounds. A further half-point in the fourth round brought his total to one, leaving him in eighth place in the standings.
After four rounds, Denis Lazavik, Edgar Mamedov and Denis Makhnov lead with three points each. Muradly is two points behind the leaders in the 10-player round-robin tournament. The KazChess Masters began on October 26 and will conclude on November 3.
