Azerbaijani chess grandmaster Muhammad Muradli has criticised the unusual tiebreak system used at the Aeroflot Open tournament in Moscow, saying it unfairly influenced the final standings, Idman.Biz reports.
Speaking after the event, the 22-year-old said the tournament overall went well for him and helped improve his rating, but admitted that he missed opportunities to achieve an even stronger result.
“The tournament overall went normally for me. From a rating perspective it was a successful performance,” Muradli said in comments to Report. “However, the games showed that I could have achieved a better result. In the eighth round I did not make the most of my chances. I had an advantage and could have played for a win, but the game ended in a draw, which made things more difficult”.
Muradli was particularly critical of the competition’s tiebreak system, which ranked players based on the number of games played with the black pieces.
“I shared positions from third to sixteenth according to the tiebreaks and finished tenth,” he explained. “The additional criterion was the number of games played with the black pieces. This is an absurd tiebreak because it does not depend on the player. The number of games with white pieces is essentially like a lottery. I was simply less fortunate in the tiebreaks, otherwise I could have finished in the top five or even the top three.”
Despite his criticism of the format, Muradli described the tournament as interesting and said the event allowed him to test a new time-control format. He also expressed hope of achieving stronger results in upcoming competitions.
Muradli was the highest-placed Azerbaijani player at the Aeroflot Open. Last month he also claimed the national title, defeating leading grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the final of the Azerbaijan Championship.
