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CHESS-MAD ARMENIA'S HEROES RETURN IN TRIUMPH
Agence France Presse(AFP)
July 29, 2011
YEREVAN - Armenia's top chess players, lauded as heroes after winning
the 2011 World Team Chess Championship this week, vowed on Friday to
boost the small chess-mad country's status in the game even further.
The team's head coach said that future successes will be secured
through official support and an unusual new scheme to promote the game
among schoolchildren initiated by Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian,
a keen player who also heads the country's Chess Federation.
"Because of this attention and care, we can improve our game," coach
Arshak Petrosian told a press conference, two days after returning
from the tournament in China to a rapturous welcome from fans and
Sarkisian himself at Yerevan airport.
Sarkisian's government decided this year to make chess a compulsory
subject in primary schools from September, investing around $1.5
million (one million euros) in a project to establish Armenia as a
global force in the game -- a large sum in the impoverished country.
"This is a very important decision for the development and spread of
chess in the country," Petrosian said.
"It doesn't mean that every pupil will then become a professional
chess player, but chess develops logic and teaches people to think
flexibly and wisely," he said.
When the players returned from China on Wednesday, their motorcade
was applauded through the streets of the capital by fans carrying
flowers and shouting "Armenia! Victory!"
Grandmasters are stars and important match results make headline news
in the ex-Soviet state of 3.2 million people, where the progress of the
12-day tournament was followed intently by large numbers of Armenians.
"Our guys showed that a small country can also become a chess
superpower," a pensioner who gave his name as Garnik told AFP, not
looking up from his chessboard as he enjoyed an outdoor match in a
Yerevan park.
Armenia had already established itself as a serious competitor in
global tournaments.
The national team won gold at the biennial International Chess Olympiad
in 2006 and 2008, and the country's leading player Levon Aronian is
currently ranked number three in the world, according to the World
Chess Federation.
Agence France Presse(AFP)
July 29, 2011
YEREVAN - Armenia's top chess players, lauded as heroes after winning
the 2011 World Team Chess Championship this week, vowed on Friday to
boost the small chess-mad country's status in the game even further.
The team's head coach said that future successes will be secured
through official support and an unusual new scheme to promote the game
among schoolchildren initiated by Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian,
a keen player who also heads the country's Chess Federation.
"Because of this attention and care, we can improve our game," coach
Arshak Petrosian told a press conference, two days after returning
from the tournament in China to a rapturous welcome from fans and
Sarkisian himself at Yerevan airport.
Sarkisian's government decided this year to make chess a compulsory
subject in primary schools from September, investing around $1.5
million (one million euros) in a project to establish Armenia as a
global force in the game -- a large sum in the impoverished country.
"This is a very important decision for the development and spread of
chess in the country," Petrosian said.
"It doesn't mean that every pupil will then become a professional
chess player, but chess develops logic and teaches people to think
flexibly and wisely," he said.
When the players returned from China on Wednesday, their motorcade
was applauded through the streets of the capital by fans carrying
flowers and shouting "Armenia! Victory!"
Grandmasters are stars and important match results make headline news
in the ex-Soviet state of 3.2 million people, where the progress of the
12-day tournament was followed intently by large numbers of Armenians.
"Our guys showed that a small country can also become a chess
superpower," a pensioner who gave his name as Garnik told AFP, not
looking up from his chessboard as he enjoyed an outdoor match in a
Yerevan park.
Armenia had already established itself as a serious competitor in
global tournaments.
The national team won gold at the biennial International Chess Olympiad
in 2006 and 2008, and the country's leading player Levon Aronian is
currently ranked number three in the world, according to the World
Chess Federation.