The victory of our Armenian chess players in the 37th chess Olympiad has left other events taking place in Armenia under the shade. The Armenian men’s chess team was declared a world champion.
Perhaps this was the first time that the people from the 150 countries participating in the Olympiad heard about the “Republic of Armenia” and perhaps most of them were asking themselves, “Who are the Armenians? How were they able to win great powers like Russia, Ukraine, Holland, the U.S…?”
However, Armenia’s victory wasn’t a surprise for the Armenians following up on the championship. I think it’s enough to say that Armenia placed third in the list of competing countries. Russia was in first place with its team, while the Indian team came in second with its chess team leader Vishvanatan Anand.
Armenia has always had successful chess players, such as world champion Tigran Petrosyan. There have even been teenage world champions and winners of different competitions. Levon Aronyan won the world cup last year. But Armenian chess players hadn’t achieved great heights like this. Armenia has received the bronze medal in the Olympics, has become a champion in Europe, but never a gold medal from the Olympiad
Armenian society is of the opinion that Armenians do well in individual sports, such as boxing, wrestling, athletics, etc.), but they are weak in team sports. Many explain that as the reason for the unsuccessful plays of our soccer teams. Although chess is an individual sport and each player relies on himself and his abilities, however the spirit of the team is also important. The environment in which team players play in has an influence on the game and it’s pretty hard to keep that environment stable. For example, there may be stress while selecting team members and some well-known players just don’t cut it.
The high number of points scored by the player is not enough. As proof of that, let’s take a look at the Russian team. Five of the six member team exceeded the “super-grosmeister” rating, which is 2700. Kramnik, Swidler, Grishchuk, Morozeyevich, Bareyev, Rulovski-this strong team was satisfied with 6th place. Russians consider this as humiliation and blame the lack of team spirit.
Let’s get back to the Armenian chess team. First of all, it is worth mentioning that Armenia had represented Armenia with an actual team to play in the Olympiad. Peter Leco’s trainer from Hungary, Arshak Petrosyan, had been invited to Armenia to help chief trainer Tigran Nalbandyan. As a matter of fact, Petrosyan had called from Holland before his arrival and said that he had seen Armenia as a champion in his dream. This was what president of the Armenian Chess Federation Serge Sargsyan said during his interview given to “Sport-Express”.
The Armenian team attracts the public eye with its new members. One of the legendary Armenian chess players, Rafael Vahanyan, no longer plays in the team. One of Armenia’s well-known chess players, Smbat Lputyan, only participated in the first couple of rounds and despite the brilliant game (2.5 points in three games), he and Armenian champion Artashes Minasyan made way for younger players. The latter proved that they can play. Starting from the 5th round, the Armenian team members consisted of the following players and didn’t change until the end: Levon Aronyan, Vladimir Hakobyan, Karen Asryan, Gabriel Sargsyan. This means that there has been a change in the generation of good chess players.
Gabriel Sargsyan became the hero of the chess Olympiad. He participated in all 13 rounds and gained more points than the rest-10 points. V. Hakobyan also did well-he scored a total of 9 points in 12 games. Our chess players set another record too-they only lost 2 games out of the 52 and this is truly amazing. The first loss can be totally considered a mistake. Karen Asryan, who was in the first game board of the first round, lost to Venezuelan chess player Rafael Prasca-not a grosmeister. But this had no influence on Asryan’s spirit; he played better during the next games. In the 11th round, he won the Czech player Babula Vlastimili, who had never lost to anyone, and got the necessary number of points for the Armenian team. They got stronger after the 11th round and became untouchable for the other teams. The next to lose was grosmeister Levon Aronyan, but that wasn’t something to be ashamed of. His competitor was V. Kramnik, who had taken the championship from Garry Kasparov.
Before the last 13th round, the Armenian chess team was exceeding the Chinese team by 2.5 points. The Chinese team was in second place. It was enough to have the score equal-the Chinese couldn’t win the Armenian team even if they won Holland with 4-0.
In similar cases, we have the “last round rule” in chess, which means not to take extra risks. The Armenian team took that risk and after a 10 minute game, they ended the game equally with the Hungarians. Regardless of the results of the other games, the Armenian team came out victorious with 36 points in total. China won Holland by 2.5-1.5 in the last round and received the silver medal with a total of 34 points. The U.S. won the bronze medal after winning Norway by 3.5-0.5. As for the Russians, they left with nothing-they lost to Israel by 3-1. Even if Russia played a fair game, it would be equal to the U.S. with 33 points and would receive the bronze medal if it had higher points. However, this was not the case. Instead of feeling sorry for the Russians, it’s better to be proud of the Armenian team, which won 10 games in the 13th round, ended the 2nd round with an equal score and didn’t lose any. The following is a list of the games that the Armenian team played.
1. Armenia-Venezuela: 3-1
2. Nigeria-Armenia: 0.5-3.5
3. Armenia-Denmark: 3-1
4. Armenia-Norway: 4-0
5. Russia-Armenia: 2-2
6. Armenia-Uzbekistan: 2.5-1.5
7. Holland-Armenia: 1-3
8. Cuba-Armenia: 1-3
9. Ukraine-Armenia: 1.5-2.5
10. Armenia-China: 2.5-1.5
11. Armenia-Czech Republic: 3-1
12. France-Armenia: 2-2
13. Armenia-Hungary: 2-2
Once again, let’s list the names of the players without whom Armenia wouldn’t be celebrating its victory: Levon Aronya, Vladimir Hakobyan, Karen Asryan, Smbat Lputyan, Gabriel Sargsyan, Artashes MInasyan.
Thank you…