The second best player to hail from the Azeri capital of Baku, Radja actually holds an even score with his more famous former compatriot, Kasparov. His rating progress graph is also much like Aronian’s, currently at an all time high of 2729. Teimour already played in Corus in 2003, finishing in a very respectable 50%, but that was 100 ELO points ago, and before he made it a habit to beat sitting world champions and the likes with the black pieces. One can be certain that this time around he is hungry for more. Seemingly improving all the time, the mostly independently working Radjabov had a great Linares-Morelia, tying for second place with Topalov at 8/14, second only to the hot Aronian. He also finished in second in Biel, after Morozevich, and with Carlsen(6/10). In the Mainz rapid, he almost caused a sensation, leading Anand twice (not an easy task), but losing in the end. This turned out to be a good practice for the strong Cap D’agde rapid knockout, as when the smoke cleared Radja was the only man left standing (beating Karjakin in the finals 1.5/0.5).