President takes part in official opening ceremony of 10th World Team Chess Championship in Tsaghkadzor

RA President Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Armenian Chess Federation, accompanied by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, today took part in the official opening ceremony of the 10th jubilee World Team Chess Championship being held in Tsaghkadzor from 18 to 29 April. The strongest chess players of the most powerful national teams of the world, i.e. Russia, Ukraine, China, the United States of America, India, Hungary, Israel, Cuba, Egypt and Armenia are participating in the championship. The teams have won the right to participation as Olympic prizewinners and as champions of their continents.

For the first time in the history of the world team championships, out of 50 participants 49 chess players hold the highest title of grandmaster which is an exceptional phenomenon in the entire chronology of chess championships.

This is the second time Armenia has had the honor to organize a world team chess championship. Our country hosted such a big event in Yerevan in 2001.

On the occasion of the opening, Serzh Sargsyan greeted FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov present in the event and the chess players of the strongest teams participating in the world team championship, wishing the championship to be nice and successful.

The President was proud to mention that despite its small territory and population, Armenia is considered a chess superpower in the world. The President said that it speaks of the fact that Armenians love chess very much, play chess a lot, and take pride in our national team. According to Serzh Sargsyan, it is no accident that our country has been hosting big championships for a long time now not only in Yerevan, but also in Tsaghkadzor, Dilijan and Jermuk. The Armenian President stressed that 2015 is a unique year for both Armenia and the entire Armenian people, as this year our people are marking the Armenian Genocide Centennial and for that purpose, they are organizing numerous events which embrace four main messages – memory, gratitude, prevention and revival. “I am grateful to our chess players whose play and activities both in 2015 and long before it have provided proof of at least one of these messages – the idea of revival. And if small Armenia’s national team has been a thrice Olympic champion and a world champion, it means that the plan of those who wanted to annihilate us utterly failed. We exist; we have survived and have been developing. Chess sets the best example of fair play and just struggle for many spheres, and I am confident that the Tsaghkadzor championship will be strenuous, interesting and will witness a lot of nice and meaningful games. May the best ones win,” said President Serzh Sargsyan in his welcoming speech.