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The Times & Transcript (New Brunswick), Canada
May 6, 2011 Friday
A national addiction
The recent decision by Armenia to make chess a mandatory subject in
elementary schools has a surprising twist.
Chess is thought to foster intellectual development as well as
discipline and social skills, but tiny Armenia, population 3.2
million, has a not-so-hidden agenda.
The program, according to Arman Aivazian, an official of the Ministry
of Education, "will create a solid basis for the country to become a
chess superpower."
Curiously, the goal seems akin to David standing by the prostrate form
of his slain adversary Goliath and shouting "Who's next!"
In fact, Armenia, gold medal winner in the 2008 and 2010 Chess
Olympiad is already a chess behemoth.
Besides its team successes against countries a hundredfold more
populous, Armenia's leading individual player Levon Aronian is ranked
third in the world, only a stone's throw from the top(the pun is
accidental).
In Armenia, "chess is nothing but a national obsession" reports
Vanessa Barford of BBC News, "Victories are celebrated with the kind
of frenzy most countries reserved for football."
Applauding the introduction of chess into Armenian schools,
Grandmaster Raymond Keene, London Times chess columnist, notes that
involvement in chess can be "a very addictive process," although "a
positive drug for children."
In Armenia, we are witnessing a national and collective addiction of
the entire population.
From: A. Papazian
May 6, 2011 Friday
A national addiction
The recent decision by Armenia to make chess a mandatory subject in
elementary schools has a surprising twist.
Chess is thought to foster intellectual development as well as
discipline and social skills, but tiny Armenia, population 3.2
million, has a not-so-hidden agenda.
The program, according to Arman Aivazian, an official of the Ministry
of Education, "will create a solid basis for the country to become a
chess superpower."
Curiously, the goal seems akin to David standing by the prostrate form
of his slain adversary Goliath and shouting "Who's next!"
In fact, Armenia, gold medal winner in the 2008 and 2010 Chess
Olympiad is already a chess behemoth.
Besides its team successes against countries a hundredfold more
populous, Armenia's leading individual player Levon Aronian is ranked
third in the world, only a stone's throw from the top(the pun is
accidental).
In Armenia, "chess is nothing but a national obsession" reports
Vanessa Barford of BBC News, "Victories are celebrated with the kind
of frenzy most countries reserved for football."
Applauding the introduction of chess into Armenian schools,
Grandmaster Raymond Keene, London Times chess columnist, notes that
involvement in chess can be "a very addictive process," although "a
positive drug for children."
In Armenia, we are witnessing a national and collective addiction of
the entire population.
From: A. Papazian