Gunay Mammadzada

Mammadzada had been in eighth place at the European Individual Championship after starting out with a score of 5/7 before finishing in 38th place.

She clinched the WGM title in September at the Baku Open by scoring 4/9 against much stronger opponents with an average rating of 2494, earning both her third and final WGM norm and her first International Master (IM) norm.

At 14 years old, Mammadzada became Azerbaijan's youngest WGM in history, surpassing Turkan Mamedyarova's previous record of attaining the title at age 18.

Gunay Vugar qizi Mammadzada (Günay Vüqar qızı Məmmədzadə; born June 19, 2000) is an Azerbaijani chess player who holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) through the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

She has been an under-10 girls' World Youth Champion, and both an under-8 and an under-14 girls' European Youth Champion.

Gunay Mammadzada was born on 19 June 2000 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

She began playing chess at five years old, becoming interested in the game from watching her grandparents play recreationally.

She joined the Olympic Reserve Youth Chess School No. 1 that same year.

At the school, she began working with Rasul Ibrahimov, an Azerbaijani Grandmaster (GM) who has long since remained her coach.

Mammadzada began to have national and international success at around the age of seven.

Early in 2007, she finished in third place at the Azerbaijani national championships in the under-8 girls' division.

Later that year, she made her debuts at the European Youth and World Youth Chess Championships in the same division.

She medalled in both events, earning bronze at the European Championships and silver at the World Championships.

She scored 8½/11 in the latter event, losing games to the winner Ivana Maria Furtado and Zhansaya Abdumalik.

The following year, she medalled at both events again, winning gold at the European Championships and earning bronze at the World Championships.

She finished behind Abdumalik and Qiyu Zhou at the latter event, having lost against both of them.

Her victory over Kelly Wang was instrumental in her winning the tiebreak over Wang for third place.

Mammadzada earned her first FIDE rating in January 2009, starting out at 1764 at age eight after participating in the under-10 girls' division at the 2008 European Youth Championship.

After not medalling at the 2009 European Youth Championship, she recovered to win the under-10 girls' division at the 2009 World Youth Championship in Antalya.

She won her first ten games at the latter event en route to a score of 10½/11, two points ahead of Furtado, who finished in second place and was one of the players she defeated.

Mammadzada first entered the Azerbaijani women's national championship in 2010 at nine years old, finishing in last place as the lowest-rated competitor.

She also was awarded the Woman FIDE Master (WFM) title in 2010.

Mammadzada had another triumph in 2012, finishing in clear first at the under-13 girls' World School Individual Chess Championship, ahead of two higher-rated Russian players: Anna Vasenina and Irina Drogovoz.

She came close to medalling at European Youth Championship later that year, finishing in joint third in the under-12 girls' division with 7/9 along with two other players, but had a lesser tiebreak.

During 2013, Mammadzada reached rating milestones of 2000 and 2100.

She won her second European Youth Championship in Montenegro, finishing in clear first in the under-14 girls' division with 7½/9.

In particular, she defeated Nela Pychova in the last round when Pychova had begun the round alone in first place.

Having already earned her first WIM norm in July 2013 at the Nana Aleksandria Cup in Georgia, she earned both WIM and WGM norms at two tournaments in 2014, the David Bronstein Memorial in Belarus that February and the European Individual Women's Chess Championship in Bulgaria that July.

She scored 5/9 at the former event, highlighted by a last-round win against Siniša Dražić, a Serbian GM.

She scored 6/11 at the latter event and gained 134 rating points to cross the 2300 rating threshold needed for the WGM title.

After winning several medals at both the European Youth and World Youth Championships, she became the youngest Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in Azerbaijan history at 14 years old in 2014.

In 2014, Mammadzada earned both the Woman International Master (WIM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) titles.

Mammadzada earned her last two IM norms in 2015 and 2016, but did not reach the rating threshold of 2400 needed for the title until 2018.

Her second IM norm came at the Czech Open in July 2015, where she scored 5½/9.

She earned all of her norms for the International Master (IM) title by 2016 and was awarded the title in 2018 when she reached the required rating threshold of 2400.

Among the highest-rated players she has defeated are Abhijeet Gupta with a rating of 2614 and Koneru Humpy, one of the leading female players, with a rating of 2577.

Mammadzada is a two-time Azerbaijani women's national champion, which she achieved in 2017 and 2019.

She has represented Azerbaijan at the Chess Olympiad, the World Team Chess Championship, and the European Team Chess Championship, winning both team and individual bronze medals at the latter in 2019.

Mammadzada has a peak FIDE rating of 2483 and has been ranked as high as No. 18 in the world among women.

Mammadzada began playing chess at five years old.