Shakhriar Mamediarov (02. 04. 1985, Baku, Azerbaijan). Sport journalists called him “Shah”. He had to visit Kazakhstan in the beginning of this year to play demonstrative match in “speedy chess” (25 minutes to each player) with one of the young Kazakhstan chess-players. But his visit to Kazakhstan didn’t take place, but Shakhriar even had been in Almaty. He played with Kazakhstan grand-master Darmen Sadvakasov two years ago and won. But his visit in 2006 was friendly and didn’t take into account in FIDE schedule. And now Shakhriar will play in official tournament in Kazakhstan for the first time. As many grand-masters from Azerbaijan chess school he plays open, battle chess and doesn’t like boring play and draws. But he has a lot of draws last time! The reason of it that he plays with real great chess-players! But Shakhriar always struggle only for victory. Mamediarov is ruthless over chess-board, but friendly and open guy in everyday life.