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ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN: PLAY CHESS, NOT WAR
EurasiaNet.org
Sept 26 2012
NY
September 26, 2012 - 8:20am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
The world's top chess-playing country, Armenia, faces a tough gambit.
Two upcoming big games will be held right next door in, arguably,
the world's most anti-Armenian country, Azerbaijan. Armenian sports
officials have threatened to boycott the tournaments.
Azerbaijan's glittery capital, Baku, was chosen as the venue for the
2015 World Cup and 2016 World Olympiad by the World Chess Federation
(FIDE). Armenia, dubbed "the cleverest nation" in the world by the
BBC after winning two chess Olympiads in a row (it won this year as
well), is not ready to move its players to the enemy's board.
The two countries have long been in stalemate over the disputed
territory of Nagorno Karabakh. In May, the bitter enmity precluded
Armenia from participating in Eurovision, the annual pan-European
pop-music talent show hosted this year by Baku.
The animosity has grown stronger still since Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev last month pardoned and honored an army officer convicted
of decapitating an Armenian man in Budapest.
It may indeed be a little hard for the Armenian grandmasters to travel
to Baku and fix their eyes on the chessboard when there is a convicted
axe-murderer walking the streets freely.
Azerbaijani sports officials, for their part, have vowed to ensure
the safety of the Armenian players. Sports Minister Azad Ragimov noted
that Armenia has participated in boxing competitions in Baku before,
with no untoward incidents.
But the executive director of Armenia's Chess Federation, Hrach
Tadevosian, had a different take.
"Chess is not boxing or football to fight and run around," he pointed
out. "You have to sit and think for hours, and you simply can't do
that when you are under pressure."
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65963
EurasiaNet.org
Sept 26 2012
NY
September 26, 2012 - 8:20am, by Giorgi Lomsadze
The world's top chess-playing country, Armenia, faces a tough gambit.
Two upcoming big games will be held right next door in, arguably,
the world's most anti-Armenian country, Azerbaijan. Armenian sports
officials have threatened to boycott the tournaments.
Azerbaijan's glittery capital, Baku, was chosen as the venue for the
2015 World Cup and 2016 World Olympiad by the World Chess Federation
(FIDE). Armenia, dubbed "the cleverest nation" in the world by the
BBC after winning two chess Olympiads in a row (it won this year as
well), is not ready to move its players to the enemy's board.
The two countries have long been in stalemate over the disputed
territory of Nagorno Karabakh. In May, the bitter enmity precluded
Armenia from participating in Eurovision, the annual pan-European
pop-music talent show hosted this year by Baku.
The animosity has grown stronger still since Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev last month pardoned and honored an army officer convicted
of decapitating an Armenian man in Budapest.
It may indeed be a little hard for the Armenian grandmasters to travel
to Baku and fix their eyes on the chessboard when there is a convicted
axe-murderer walking the streets freely.
Azerbaijani sports officials, for their part, have vowed to ensure
the safety of the Armenian players. Sports Minister Azad Ragimov noted
that Armenia has participated in boxing competitions in Baku before,
with no untoward incidents.
But the executive director of Armenia's Chess Federation, Hrach
Tadevosian, had a different take.
"Chess is not boxing or football to fight and run around," he pointed
out. "You have to sit and think for hours, and you simply can't do
that when you are under pressure."
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/65963