Naiditsch now an Azeri
Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 10:39 am
The Germans appear to have lost their best player, Naiditsch to Azerbaijan according to the German and Italian media. Apparently the Azeri's tried to buy Caruana (it costs at least 50,000+ euros to transfer a 2700+ player to another country who doesn't have any affiliation to it though the deal Caruana struck with the American was reported to be three or four times that) and having failed launched a bid for Naiditsch who has beaten Carlsen twice recently and has had a great run of form. Naiditsch apparently signed up over Whitsun and was very clear he did it for the money. Unlike most countries money is currently no problem in Azerbaijan:
The Azerbaijan chess association is run by the head of the National Bank;
The state oil company Socar has a professional team; and
The 2016 chess Olympiad is to be held with a 15 million euro budget in Baku making it the most expensive chess Olympiad in history.
Wonder if we can expect any more transfers? Wait! Is that a row of 2700+ players with their hands stretched up to the sky I can see before me?
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/sport/mehr-s ... 01335.html
The Azerbaijan chess association is run by the head of the National Bank;
The state oil company Socar has a professional team; and
The 2016 chess Olympiad is to be held with a 15 million euro budget in Baku making it the most expensive chess Olympiad in history.
Wonder if we can expect any more transfers? Wait! Is that a row of 2700+ players with their hands stretched up to the sky I can see before me?
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/sport/mehr-s ... 01335.html
The American's have at least 'just' been repatriating people/dual nationality.
(2 x Norwegians, 2 x Italians the core of that effort.).