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Profile: Varuzhan Akobian
U.S. Chess Champs
May 2013
Title: Grandmaster
Rating: 2690
Residence: Topeka, Kansas
Age: 28
Status: Accepted
Chess Highlights: 2009 World Team Championship: Silver, 2004 World
Open, U.S. Junior Champion 2003, T-1st World Open 2002
Synopsis:
Varuzhan Akobian is a strong Armenian-American player who emigrated to
the U.S in 2001. In 2002, he won the Samford Chess Fellowship, which
allowed him to focus on chess for two years. It paid off: Akobian
reached his first long-time goal of becoming a Grandmaster in
2004. Var is known for being a great team player: He was a member of
the bronze medal Olympiad teams in 2006 and 2008. He also represented
the U.S. team in Bursa, Turkey at the 2009 World Team Championship
where he helped the U.S. earn silver medals. He was featured on MTV's
"True Life" series. Akobian recently moved to Kansas, where his wife
is attending law school. He serves in the Resident GM rotation at the
Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.
Bio:
The weather was so harsh in the years that Armenian-American
Grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian spent in Mongolia, that his father
forbade "Var" and his sister Armine, from playing outside. He taught
them chess, a perfect indoor distraction. "From the very beginning"
Var says, "I was different from other chess kids. It was never just a
game for me. I always wanted to be a Grandmaster, and knew that I
would do what it takes." As a teenager living in Yerevan, the capital
of Armenia, Varuzhan spent all day playing chess and soccer. His
teachers agreed that he could focus on chess, without fear of truancy
charges. "This is one way in which Armenia is very different from the
United States. If I went to high school here, I never could have spent
so much energy on chess."
Varuzhan Akobian qualified to play his first rated tournament, the
Armenian Junior Chess Championship in 1992, earning third place in the
under 10 section, then went on to take first place the following
year. He participated in his first World Chess Championship in
Czechoslovakia at the age of 9 and placed eighth.
Varuzhan excels in positional battles and admires the games and style
of Armenian hero, World Champion Tigran Petrosian. Var's favorite
Black opening, just like Petrosian, is the French Defense. Var's
advice to players aspiring to improve is this: "Don't expect to see
constant improvement. You build knowledge and work hard, and after a
while, you'll see a big breakthrough."
In 2002, Varuzhan won the Samford Chess Fellowship, which allows a
talented junior to focus on chess for two years. The prize paid off
quickly, as he tied for first in the 2002 World Open and also won the
Irme Koenig GM Invitational. The following year, Akobian scored 8/9 to
win the 2003 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, winning his first seven
games. He was officially awarded the Grandmaster title in June 2004,
after which he won the World Open again, clinching it with a sparkling
win against Alexander Shabalov. Varuzhan is the first person in the
21st century to win clear first in the World Open (without having to
play a blitz playoff).
Recently, GM Akobian moved from sunny California to Topeka, Kansas,
where his wife is attending law school at Washburn University. He has
joined the Resident GM rotation at the Chess Club and Schoalstic
Center of Saint Louis, which brings some of the country's top players
to the Chess Club to give private lessons, present lectures and share
their chess knowledge witht the club's more than 900 members.
U.S. Chess Champs
May 2013
Title: Grandmaster
Rating: 2690
Residence: Topeka, Kansas
Age: 28
Status: Accepted
Chess Highlights: 2009 World Team Championship: Silver, 2004 World
Open, U.S. Junior Champion 2003, T-1st World Open 2002
Synopsis:
Varuzhan Akobian is a strong Armenian-American player who emigrated to
the U.S in 2001. In 2002, he won the Samford Chess Fellowship, which
allowed him to focus on chess for two years. It paid off: Akobian
reached his first long-time goal of becoming a Grandmaster in
2004. Var is known for being a great team player: He was a member of
the bronze medal Olympiad teams in 2006 and 2008. He also represented
the U.S. team in Bursa, Turkey at the 2009 World Team Championship
where he helped the U.S. earn silver medals. He was featured on MTV's
"True Life" series. Akobian recently moved to Kansas, where his wife
is attending law school. He serves in the Resident GM rotation at the
Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.
Bio:
The weather was so harsh in the years that Armenian-American
Grandmaster Varuzhan Akobian spent in Mongolia, that his father
forbade "Var" and his sister Armine, from playing outside. He taught
them chess, a perfect indoor distraction. "From the very beginning"
Var says, "I was different from other chess kids. It was never just a
game for me. I always wanted to be a Grandmaster, and knew that I
would do what it takes." As a teenager living in Yerevan, the capital
of Armenia, Varuzhan spent all day playing chess and soccer. His
teachers agreed that he could focus on chess, without fear of truancy
charges. "This is one way in which Armenia is very different from the
United States. If I went to high school here, I never could have spent
so much energy on chess."
Varuzhan Akobian qualified to play his first rated tournament, the
Armenian Junior Chess Championship in 1992, earning third place in the
under 10 section, then went on to take first place the following
year. He participated in his first World Chess Championship in
Czechoslovakia at the age of 9 and placed eighth.
Varuzhan excels in positional battles and admires the games and style
of Armenian hero, World Champion Tigran Petrosian. Var's favorite
Black opening, just like Petrosian, is the French Defense. Var's
advice to players aspiring to improve is this: "Don't expect to see
constant improvement. You build knowledge and work hard, and after a
while, you'll see a big breakthrough."
In 2002, Varuzhan won the Samford Chess Fellowship, which allows a
talented junior to focus on chess for two years. The prize paid off
quickly, as he tied for first in the 2002 World Open and also won the
Irme Koenig GM Invitational. The following year, Akobian scored 8/9 to
win the 2003 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, winning his first seven
games. He was officially awarded the Grandmaster title in June 2004,
after which he won the World Open again, clinching it with a sparkling
win against Alexander Shabalov. Varuzhan is the first person in the
21st century to win clear first in the World Open (without having to
play a blitz playoff).
Recently, GM Akobian moved from sunny California to Topeka, Kansas,
where his wife is attending law school at Washburn University. He has
joined the Resident GM rotation at the Chess Club and Schoalstic
Center of Saint Louis, which brings some of the country's top players
to the Chess Club to give private lessons, present lectures and share
their chess knowledge witht the club's more than 900 members.