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Last Saturday (28 June 2025), just a few days after his 50th birthday, Armenian Grandmaster and chess trainer Tigran Vaanovic Nalbandian passed away as a result of a heart attack.
Born on 5 June 1975 in Yerevan, then the capital of the Armenian Soviet Republic, Nalbandian was among Armenia's greatest young chess talents. He studied at the Maya Chiburdanidze Chess School and won several Armenian youth championships in various age categories. In 1990, he won the Belavenets Memorial in Moscow, the first international youth tournament in the USSR. In 1991, he came third in the Soviet U16 Championship and later competed in the final stage of the U18 Championships of the USSR.
In 1992, Nalbandian represented Armenia at the U20 European Championship. He played in the U20 World Championships in 1994 and 1995. In 1996, Nalbandian was part of Armenia's second team at the Chess Olympiad held in Yerevan.
Nalbandian participated in numerous international tournaments and achieved good results.
He was a frequent participant at tournaments in Dortmund. In 2002, he won the Open at the Dortmund Chess Festival. He repeated this success in 2007 and 2010 as joint winner with Lev Gutman (2007) and Thomas Henrich and Mikhail Zaitsev (2010).
In 2004, FIDE awarded Nalbandian the title of Grandmaster, after he achieved the required norms at the national championships in Yerevan (1998) and by winning open tournaments in Capelle-la-Grande and Alushta.
With his peak Elo rating of 2527, Nalbandian was ranked 11th in the Armenian national list in October 2005.
Towards the end of his professional playing career, Nalbandian worked as a chess coach and, from 2001, was part of Vladimir Kramnik's training team. A childhood friend of Kramnik, he also supported the then World Champion in his 2002 match against Deep Fritz in Bahrain.
From 2004 to 2008, Nalbandian coached the Armenian men's national team, contributing to four medals: bronze at the 2004 Chess Olympiad in Calvià, bronze at the 2005 World Team Championship in Beer-Sheva, gold at the 2006 Chess Olympiad in Turin, and silver at the 2007 European Team Championship in Crete.
Among his students were several Armenian, including Zaven Andriasyan, Hovhannes Gabuzyan, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Elina Danielian. In 2009, he led the Armenian youth team to a bronze medal at the Youth Olympiad. Most recently, he was a trainer at the "Kaissa" Chess School in Yerevan.
We join the Armenian Chess Federation in extending our heartfelt condolences to the family, relatives and colleagues of Tigran Nalbandian.
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