Elmar Magerramov

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Elmar Magerramov (born April 10, 1958, in Baku) is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster. In 1991, he shared first place in the last USSR Chess Championship with Artashes Minasian, but lost the title on tiebreaks. In 1992, he became Azerbaijan’s first-ever chess grandmaster. He played training matches and tournament games against Garry Kasparov, finishing with a score of 4 wins, 8 losses, and 7 draws.

Magerramov has also had a long coaching career. He was the national team coach of Tunisia and coached Kasparov during the 1984 World Chess Championship and Maia Chiburdanidze during the 1991 Women's World Chess Championship.

He currently lives in the United Arab Emirates. He is married and has two sons. Outside chess, his interests include mathematics and music. He plays online on the Internet Chess Club under the username "El-Marmalade." His peak rating was 2580 in July 1994, and his peak world ranking was No. 76 in July 1991. His FIDE rating was 2515 in February 2026. A chapter about him appears in Tibor Karolyi's Genius in the Background.