Sam Sevian wins strong Stepan Avagyan Memorial

by André Schulz
5/14/2023 – On Thursday, the 4th Stepan Avagyan Memorial ended in Jermuk, Armenia. It was a strong 10-player round-robin tournament with many young participants. Rating favourite Sam Sevian won the tournament with a 6/9 score. Four players finished a full point behind: Nodirbek Yakubboev, Amin Tabatabaei, Haik Martirosyan and Robert Hovhannisyan. | Photos: Official website

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On Thursday, the memorial tournament in honour of Stepan H. Avagyan ended in Jermuk, Armenia. Born in 1956 in Ukraine, Avagyan moved to Armenia with his family as a child. Avagyan studied medicine, worked as a doctor and became chief physician at the Jermuk Health Centre in 1991. In 2003, he opened his own health centre, the “Jermuk Ashkhar”. From 2003 to 2014, the chess-loving physician was president of the chess federation of the Vayots Dzor region.

The 4th Stepan H. Avagyan was held as a category 16 tournament with ten players from the countries of Armenia, the United States, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Russia, Uzbekistan and Iran at the Jermuk Ashxarh Hotel. It was the strongest chess tournament organized in Armenia so far this year.

Smbat Lputjan, Vice-President of the Armenian Chess Federation, opened the tournament in the presence of representatives of the Jermuk Ashkhar Health Centre and the city administration. Midway through the tournament, the President of the Chess Federation and former President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, also visited the tournament.

The US grandmaster with Armenian roots, Samual Sevian, entered the tournament as the rating favourite. A number of strong international grandmasters, most of them very young, took part. Haik Martirosyan, Artur Davtyan and Robert Hovhannisyan represented the colours of the host nation.

In the final tally, Sevian finished on top with 6 points from 9 games. He won three games and remained undefeated. Four players finished one point behind: Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzbekistan), Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), Haik Martirosyan (Armenia) and Robert Hovhannisyan (Armenia).

Frederik Svane represented Germany

Final standings

Rg. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Sevian, Samuel 6 25,00
2 Yakubboev, Nodirbek 5 22,00
3 Tabatabaei, M. Amin 5 21,75
4 Martirosyan, Haik M. 5 21,50
5 Hovhannisyan, Robert 5 21,00
6 Esipenko, Andrey 4,5 19,75
7 Svane, Frederik 4 18,50
8 Narayanan.S.L, 4 17,50
9 Nguyen, Thai Dai Van 3,5 16,25
10 Davtyan, Artur 3 12,25

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André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.