Armenia Defeats Hungary, Wins Gold at Chess Olympiad

ISTANBUL, Turkey (A.W.)—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 during the final round (Photo by Arman Karakhanyan)

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.

25 Comments

  1. With letter “E” (5th letter in the Armenian alphabet) in the Olympiad logo, hanging all over the palce, it would have been hard not to win.
    Congardulations for the 3rd time.

  2. This win makes me feel proud of being an Armenian, a very old race & nation, the indigenous & the aborigine race of the Armenian Highlands which Turkey & aliyevistan try to wipe it out of the map.

    • 1992 Gold – Russia (pop 140 million)
      1994 Gold – Russia
      1996 Gold – Russia
      1998 Gold – Russia
      2000 Gold – Russia
      2002 Gold – Russia
      2004 Gold -Ukraine (pop 45 million)
      2006 Gold – Armenia (pop 3 million)
      2008 Gold – Armenia
      2010 Gold – Ukraine
      2012 Gold – Armenia

      Turkey, population 75 million has won:
      Gold-0, Silver-0, Bronze-0, since 1924.
      Azerbaijan, population 9 million (supposedly) has won:
      Gold-0, Silver-0, Bronze-0, since 1924.

      The Greatest chess player of all time, Gary Kasparov, was born in Baku: Armenian mother, Jewish father. Escaped to Moscow with his family when Baku massacres of Armenians in Baku began in 1990. Quick thinking: the world could have lost its greatest chess player ever, a gift to humanity, to a lowbrow ax murderer in Baku.

      And people who deify a Psyaxopath are supposed to be the rulers of the likes of Levon Aronian, Sergei Movsesian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian, and Tigran Petrosian in NKR ?

      And one wonders what the 2 million exterminated Armenians would have been able to accomplish in this World.

    • As a Turkish citizen and a chess enthusiast, I’d like to congratulate the Armenian team. At some point, since they had lost to the Russian team, it looked like they were out of the competition but the USA’s victory over Russia in the 9th round has been decisive and helped Armenia reach the gold medal (so, I guess the Armenians living in the US should be double-proud).

      To Avery:

      First of all, Turkey has not been a chess country at all (although this is the second time the country has held the organization), although there is huge investment and in the youth categories the results look promising for future -, therefore, saying that Turkey has not won any medal since 1924 does not mean much – China has a population of 1.5 billion people but they have not won the World cup in football, but they are not known as a football country either. Secondly, Azerbaijan, although they did not win any single medal so far, is probably at least on a par with the Armenian national team in terms of the overall quality, but when the super-GM Vugar Gashimov plays. However, he has had to miss many tournaments since he had a serious accident and brain surgery a couple of years ago (and last year during a tournament in Greece, he lost his consciousness and fainted when the game was in progress); and for those who are not knowledgeable about chess, I should inform you that when he was healthy, Gashimov was one of the top 5 players at some point (actually until a couple of years ago). Not that I root for the Azerbaijani team (I rather like the Chinese and Us teams better), but under equal conditions, they were as likely to win a medal as the Armenian team, who always do a great job in the team events given that except for Levon Aronian, the other three boards are not represented by super-GMs (for instance, the Russians always have a super-GM for each board but they don’t have the team spirit the Armenians have).

      Besides, I guess from now on an upcoming crisis will be talked when it comes to chess olympiads – Baku was chosen as the organizing city for the 2016 edition of this event, and the Armenian delegates announced their withdrawal from that edition immediately. I hope by 2016 peace will be prevailing between both sides, and it would be great to see the Armenian team participate in the Baku event, and it would be great to see the Azeri friends welcome their participation (though I don’t think this is going to happen given the hawkish policies of both sides) – that is why the Olympiads are there in the first place, I guess – contributing in peace.

  3. Very proud of the Armenian team and enjoying the irony of this victory in Istanbul, Turkey. Bravo to the Hungarian team for a good competition.

  4. This makes me happy and proud of the Armenian team. Although the fact that they defeated Hungary does not particularly make me feel “good” in terms of the recent events, so I do not look at this as revenge. Unlike Azeris, the Hungarian people (not government) proved to us that they are real humans and a good people who should be praised.

  5. I AM SO PROUD OF ARMENIA AND AND THE ARMENIAN CHESS TEAM, ARMENIA HAS SUCH GREAT POTENTIAL LET US ENCOURAGE OUR PEOPLE TO USE THERE GOD GIVEN TALENT TO MAKE ARMENIA ONE OF THE MOST PROSPEROUS IN THE WORLD, I AM CONFIDENT IT COULD BE DONE WITH THE PROPER GUIDANCE FROM THE ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT.WHAT A WONDERFUL FEELING THAT OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM IS PLAYED IN TURKEY,WE ARE A PEOPLE THAT DON’T HATE ANYONE BUT DESPISE WHAT WAS DONE TO OUR PEOPLE,WE ARE A PEOPLE OF RESPECT AND PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE,WE ARE A PEOPLE OF BUILDERS NOT OF DESTRUCTION WE LOVE THE HUNGARIAN PEOPLE AND THANK THEM FOR STANDING UP WITH US FOR JUSTICE AND HUMANITY..

  6. I am so glad that the Armenian chess ‘brainiaks’ (in light of recent events)
    decided to go for the ‘killer’ message and take on Hungary instead of a ‘boycott’…
    Politics indeed, is a game of chess!

    Dear folks everywhere… All audiences alike. Now everyone in the world knows that This is not a ‘fluke’…

    Oh dear God, we are very few, only 10 million, but we are counted!
    And I always pray such that, less of us doubted and more of us acted…

    I am Shant Melkonian and I approve this message!

  7. Is there’s anything SWEETER than to force playing the ARMENIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM in Turkey…
    OR to force raising the ARMENIAN FLAG on center stage also in Turkey…
    OR beating ‘bribed-up’ Hungary in the final decisive round 11 for the gold…
    OR sending a very powerful EAR-PIERCING message to Budapest…
    OR watching Azerbaijan SUCK ON OUR EXHAUST PIPE deep down there in 10th place…
    And oh BTW, not to be outdone by Israel ‘occupying’ the 26th ‘territory’… Promised Land NOT promised gold.
    There can only be one thing SWEETER than all of the above, and that is:
    Turkey taking the ‘MIDNIGHT EXPRESS’ to waaaaaaaaaaaay down there in 42th place! LMA
    Moral of this story: USA came in 5th place with only one Armenian American member on the team… They definitely need more than one.
    Cheers to our 5 Knights!
    I am Shant Melkonian & I approve this NO BS message!

  8. Dear Readers, Do not get carried away with the gold medal. The issue of AX Murderer should remain in the forefront of every Armenian’s mind. Who knows ???? may be it is “prearranged” to divert Worldwide Armenian focus and forget the AX-KILLIER – bE WIDE AWAKE AND ALERT. Thing do happen.

    • No Armenian is forgetting anything my dear… If ‘carried away’ means taking a moment to celebrate and honor our young brave ‘knights’ who made us all so proud today and at the same time delivered a forceful message in every direction, I don’t want to be calm! SO BE IT… There’s a time for everything.

  9. So very proud to be an Armenian and to have our winners represent our country, ARMENIA in TURKEY….

    I got goosebumps when I read the news… BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO…

    • … And don’t think that I didn’t notice this, Fred… You called ‘coincident’, I call ir ‘irony’… But you beat me to it…

      And to all, please know that we do not and should not blame the people of Hungary. Just as the Zionist controlled U.S. ruling heads are steered in the opposite direction of the will of the people, MOST of the time…

  10. Interesting coincident, Armenia won Hungaria and sent them to 9th place right on top of Azerbaijan. It is one more reminder to Hungaria, that they have discredited their country and their place is next to axe murder hero’s.

  11. A daughter of Arshak Petrosian – our teams coach – is a wife of Peter Leko – the hungarian table 1 player. This explains a lot. It is not a hungarian people, but dirty corrupt scoundrels in this country’s government are guilty for something that was done a couple of weeks ago. Our friendship, partnership and ties with hungarian people are solid and for centuries to come. Respect to their chess team as well us to our boy, wich included along Armenian born players also one Armenian born in Baku (Vladimir Akopian) and one, today’s HERO, born in Tbilisi (Georgia) – Sergey Movsissian. This is very important fact: as long as we all are together – we are unbeatable and victorious.

  12. A proud moment a proud people. A game of intelligence and strategy. Keep applying those attributes to the rest of our nation. In meantime, we congratulate these national heroes.

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