He was the last seed of the event, but after seven rounds, he was leading the tournament. In a field of ten players that had eight grandmasters, he was the only untitled player. Was Armenia, a land where chess is celebrated as the national sport, going to witness the 18-year-old, Arman Mikaelyan, who was rated just 2349, become its national champion?
Arman Mikaelyan (above) began the tournament phenomenally with 5.5/7, taking the sole lead with wins over GM Tigran Kotanjian, GM Karen Grigoryan, GM Avetik Grigoryan and FM David Shahinyan. This performance was good enough to get him a GM norm irrespective of what happened in the last two rounds. By the way he also gained 68 Elo points in this event, which takes him past 2400!
The Armenian Championships for men and women were held from the 12th to the 21st of January 2015 in Yerevan. Both the men and women section were ten players round robin events. The men’s tournament had an average rating of 2541, while the women’s average was 2174. The top seeds were Arman Pashikian and Anna Hairepetian.
As luck would have it, Arman Mikaelyan lost steam in the last two rounds. He was beaten in both of them, and that allowed GM Karen Grigoryan to overtake him and take the pole position.
19-year-old Karen Grigoryan (2587) scored 6.0/9 to become the Armenian Champion.
Born in 1995, he is considered one of the biggest talents of the country.
Karen has quite a few notable performances to his name, like the Armenian U14 Champion (2008); the European U-16 Champion (2010), the winner of the G. Kasparyan Memorial Young Masters 2010, the 2011 Youth Stars Tournament, the Armenian Championship 2011 and 2013, the Albena Open (2012), the Sitges Open in July 2013, Sant Marti Open 2014 and the Badalona Open 2014.
In this tournament the winner’s route to the top was anything but smooth. He started off with 2.5/3 but was then stopped in his tracks by Arman Mikaelyan.
Karen Grigoryan with the Gold, Arman Mikaelyan (left) with the Silver and Robert Hovhannisyan with Bronze
One game that was particularly imposing was Karen’s win over Tigran Kotanjian in the fifth round. The game was played in an old romantic Morphy style with no care for material. And can you guess the opening employed by Karen? The Smith-Morra Gambit in the Sicilian!
“Do you think Morra Gambit will be a good choice?!!” Zaven Andrisian (left) finished fourth.
Arman Pashikian and Samvel Ter Sahakyan didn't have great results, finishing sixth and fifth respectively
The stylish GM Avetik Grigoryan played competitive chess after quite some time,
and had to be content with a 50% score
GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan would not be happy with his eighth place finish, but he played an important
role in deciding the winner of the tournament by defeating Arman Mikaelyan in the last round
FM David Shahinyan (left) made his second IM norm and now needs only one more to achieve
the International Master title, as he has already crossed the rating requirement of 2400
GM Tigran Kotanjian had a forgettable event as he scored just 2.0/9 and finished last
The women’s section was won by Susanna Gaboyan (2086) with a score of 7.0/9
WFM Maria Gevorgyan scored 6.5/9 and finished second
WIM Anna Hairapetian, the top seed and also 2013 Armenian Champion, finished third
Group photo: the top three winners: Maria, Susanna and Anna
The atmosphere at the playing hall was quite friendly before the start of every game
You can read this interview with the two winners, conducted by Mediamax.am in Armenian.
The two will now have the opportunity to represent Armenia at the next Olympiad
Pictures from the facebook page of Mediamax.am
