The Azerbaijani grand master, Shahriyar Mammedyarov is one of the favorites of the international festival Villa Canada de Calatrave, that is due to take place on April 14 in San- Sebastian.
The 2 time winner of the world competition among the juniors is number 3 among the participants, after the Russian, Alexander Grishuk and French, Etienne Bacro. Besides, he has one of the highest ratings among the chess players preparing for competitions in Spain. Among them are Alexey Shirov, A. Dreev, Pentala Harikrishna, Andrey Volokitin and Francisco Valieho.
Azerbaijan is also presented at the competition by Farkhad Tahirov, Namik Guliyev and Rasul Ibrahimov.