The former chess player of the Azerbaijani national team, Arkadij Naiditsch, will now represent Bulgaria.
The grandmaster is not the first athlete to choose this "route", Idman.biz reports.
Previously, there have been other athletes who represented both Azerbaijan and Bulgaria, but not through changing sports citizenship. These athletes first competed for Azerbaijan before moving on to represent Bulgaria, similar to Naiditsch.
The most recent example is figure skater Larry Loupolover, who represented Azerbaijan from 2013 to 2019. During his time under the Azerbaijani flag, he participated in five World Championships (two in the senior category, three in junior) and four European Championships.
In 2019, Loupolover was naturalized by Bulgaria, where he went on to compete in one World Championship and three European Championships.
Naiditsch achieved significant success with the Azerbaijani team, including becoming the champion of the European Team Chess Championship.
Idman.biz
