YEREVAN, ISTANBUL—The Armenian Chess team, which won gold Sunday at the Chess Olympiad, was welcomed by a large crowd at Zvartnots International Airport as national heroes and world champs.
Armenia cemented its reputation as a chess superpower by winning gold at the Chess Olympiad on Sept. 9, after defeating Hungary 2.5-1.5 in the final round.
Sergei Movsesian was Armenia’s hero of the day. He secured the crucial victory against Hungary’s Zoltan Almasi. Levon Aronian, Vladimir Akopian, and Gabriel Sargissian drew their games.
China, Armenia, and Russia had entered the final round with 17 points each.
Russia defeated Germany 3-1, but fell behind Armenia on tiebreak. China lost its match against Ukraine 3-1 and fell behind.
Armenia emerged victorious from 9 out of 11 matches. It only lost to China and drew its match against Russia.
Organized by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the Olympiad is the most prestigious team competition in the chess world.
The top-seeds were Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Hungary, Azerbaijan, China, and the U.S., respectively.
The Armenian national team is represented by Levon Aronian, Sergei Movsesian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian, and Tigran Petrosian.
Armenia won the 2006 and 2008 Olympiads, and came in seventh in 2010. It came in third in 1992, 2002, and 2004.
In 2011, Armenia also won the World Team Chess Championship.
Bravo dghek! Vartsgerneet gadar.
Best in Chess, best in honest victories – simply: Armenian!
We are truly proud of you, our dear Champions!
APREQ YEV KECCEQ!
Bravo Great ARMENIAS Bravisimo!
ARMENIA NUMBER 1
Shad shnorhagal em dgherk, housove em amen deg aragin linek.
Arsen
dahijneri ev haiery tshnamineri patasxane, haiere aytpes en talis Xelkov (ketcsek ) IM HAIYER
We have true heroes, not Murderer-Heroes, right Alyev?
Bravo! You make us so very proud of your fantastic achievements!
Congratulations to the Armenian Chess Players for winning the Gold at the Olympiad. We are all proud of the winning the 2012 World Championship.
From an enemy on the Western Border, I have to say that chess maches should not involve political rivalries and I congratulate the Armenian team for their great achievements, despite the fact that Turkey and Armenia are at each other’s throats nonetheless.
They specially did not write that the Olymipad was organized in Turkey??
did you read [YEREVAN, ISTANBUL] ?
Where is Istanbul ? China ?
Your blind hatred for Armenians has even affected your eyesight.
Organized in Turkey ? so what ? Countries vie with each other to host a prestigious event.
You don’t get credit for hosting an event.
You get credit for making sure that none of the Armenian chess players were axed to death in their sleep.
Just take a look at the Olympiad’s official website. The title of the article is “Armenia, Russia win gold medals in the 40th Chess Olympiad!” Armenia was the sole gold medalist, we won the tiebreaker, Russia got silver. They’ll write any falsifications to trump our achievement. The Azeri sources are also pedaling this false headline.
the headline refers to Russian Women: they won Gold.
although you are right: the title was cleverly worded to diminish the achievement of Armenian men’s team.
Traditionally, men chess players are ranked several hundred points above women chess players, and are given the limelight. But Turks cleverly put Armenian men’s gold, and Russian women’s gold on the same line – so as not to have only Armenia in the headline.
really, really low.