Chess Weekend
Chess in Armenia
Chess is a popular sport in Armenia. Although a country of about 3 million people, Armenia is considered one of the strongest chess nations today. Established during the early Soviet era, chess gained popularity during the 1960s, when Tigran Petrosian, a Soviet Grandmaster of Armenian descent, became the World Chess Champion.
In recent years, Armenia men's national chess team have won the European Team Championship (1999), the World Team Championship (2011) and the Chess Olympiad (2006, 2008, 2012). The women's team had its crowning victory at the 2003 European Championship. Levon Aronian is currently world No. 3 in the FIDE rankings, and was a World Champion candidate in 2007, 2011 and 2013.
Since the 2011–12 school year, chess lessons have been made part of the curriculum in every public school in Armenia by the Ministry of Education, making it the first country in the world to make chess mandatory in schools.
Source: Wikipedia
Օn March10, forty young chess players competed against Armenian chess grandmasters Vladimir Hakobyan and Gabriel Sargsyan and International Master and chess coach, Ashot Nadanyan, at Tumo.
Organized by Converse Bank Armenia, the Chess Conversation was open to Tumo members, students from the Gyumri Chess School and other young chess enthusiasts--the youngest being 6-years-old. Even teenagers at Tumo Dilijan had a chance to participate in the tournament via the Internet, playing against their Yerevan peers and a grandmaster.
The tournament lasted about two hours, and while most of the games ended with the teenagers' defeat, three games were closely matched and ended in a draw.