Mikayel Andriasyan, general secretary of Chess Federation, summed up the results of the current year, noting that 2017 was a successful year for Armenian chess.
“9 international competitions were held in Armenia, which is an unprecedented indicator. “Yerevan Open”, “Tsaghkadzor Open”, Karen Asryan Memorial Tournament, Junior Grand Prix of Europe, Andranik Margaryan Memorial Tournament, “Lake Sevan”, which was FIDE 16th category tournament are among those.
Our chess-players played with honour in the international arena this year. Levon Aronian, the leader of the Armenian team, recorded excellent results in the international tournaments. He is the best chess player of the year. Levon won «GRENKE Chess Classic» (Germany), «Norway Chess» (Norway), and the World Cup held in Tbilisi. By the way, the Norwegian tournament with ten strongest grandmasters with 2797 points, can be considered the strongest tournament in chess history without exaggeration, and the victory in the capital of Georgia brought him a ticket to the tournament to be held in Berlin next year. Levon Aronian is the only chess player to win the World Cup twice. Aronian’s victory in quick and rapid chess tournament in Saint Louis (USA) also should be noted, as well as the second place in FIDE “Grand Prix” in the last, fourth round, with additional points.
Teenagers also recorded victories. Sona Asatryan declared champion in the U18 age group of Europe, Manuel Petrosyan won the U20 world vice-champion title. 17-year-old Hayk Martirosyan was in the world junior team which had a meeting with the US junior team. The Armenian chess player got ahead of Jeffrey Syuni and Samuel Sevian, the leading US chess players and had a great investment in the team’s victory. Aram Hakobyan and Shant Sargsyan successfully performed at the Junior “Grand Prix” in Jermuk this year taking the second and third places. Aram Hakobyan also became bronze winner at the “World’s Youth Stars” tournament.
One of the achievements of adult chess players is the recent Chess Classic FIDE OPEN tournament in London, where Gabriel Sargsyan took the first place and Hrant Melkumyan the second. Our veterans were not bad either. Karen Movsisyan won the European Champion title, while the Armenian team won silver at the World Team Championships.
Chess-year is still on. Chess Junior (U16) Olympiad is being held in India these days, where the Armenian team is fighting for the prize places. Grandmaster Zaven Andriasyan will perform at the rapid and blitz European Chess Championship in Katowice (Poland) from December 14 to 17. Season-2017 will end in Saudi Arabia for chess players, where the world chess championship for men and women will be held with the participation of all the leading chess players of Armenia from 25 to 30 December, with 2 million dollars record prize fund.
Mass chess is not forgotten either. Chess Schoolchildren Olympiad was held again, where about 2000 schoolchildren from the country’s secondary schools participated in the first and second stages. The third round will be held in March 2018 and the final will be held in May. The best team will take part in the “White Boat” schoolchildren tournament in Sochi. School No. 55 named after Chekhov, representing Armenia this year, has won the “White Boat” silver medal.
Great generation of chess-players is growing up in Armenia: Vahe Baghdasaryan, Manuel Petrosyan, Hayk Martirosyan and Arman Mikayelyan became grandmasters this year, six more became international masters. This is the highest index in Armenia’s chess history.
FIDE coaching and international seminars were also organized. Ashot Vardapetyan, one of FIDE’s leading coaches, personally conducted seminars for referees. Armenian representatives were included in the list of referees serving world and European championships. Ashot Nadanyan has been awarded the title of FIDE coach.
2018 will also be full of events. International tournaments will again be held in Armenia.
The World Chess Olympiad and the men’s and women’s European Team Championships are to come. However, the main event is the qualifying tournament in Berlin (March 10-28). Armenian Chess Federation will do its best so that Armenian leading chess-player Levon Aronian succeeds in Berlin, and wins the right to take part in the long-awaited competition for the Chess crown with world champion Magnus Carlsen”, Said Mikayel Andriasyan.
Ashot HAKOBYAN
