Above: Armenian chess textbook for elementary school Left: Smbat Lputian in the garden of his chess academy: “Chess is as important as reading and writing”
tournaments means he can afford to drive an SUV of the Infiniti brand, Nissan’s luxury marque. His goals for the future are “to become world champion. Perhaps a second Olympiad title. The Armenian people need our victories.”
ADDITIONAL PHOTO: TIME LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
MR LPUTIAN’S ELITE
Shengavit, a residential suburb of Yerevan, is the last place you would expect to find a world-class training centre for anything. Dreary prefabricated houses dominate the surrounding area: gaping potholes in the road; angry, growling dogs slink through the streets. Right here, at 34 Shevchenko Street, is the two-storey headquarters of the Armenian Chess Academy, with its unpainted concrete walls and a neatly mown lawn. The school for elite players is the only new building in the neighbourhood, and the realm of its director, Smbat Lputian. “During the economic crisis [in the 1990s] many top trainers left the country,” says the 55-year-old chess grandmaster. “We were at risk of losing all of our talent.” Lputian founded the academy in 2002. He then travelled around the country, organising tournaments and asking chess masters to join him. The academy now has about 1,000 students, aged from 5-18 years old, at 47 branches across Armenia. “One or two will become world class,” says Lputian. All of them had to play chess to a very high standard to get a place at the academy. The state pays for their tuition. Of Armenia’s 34 current grandmasters, seven studied THE RED BULLETIN
here. “Armenians make the best out of their situation,” says Lputian, “no matter how bad their chances are.” It is why, he says, the Armenian chess miracle continues. The state support would amount to little without the desire to overcome circumstance of those who receive it. In addition to the elite support for the highly gifted players, the government
THE GREATEST Armenia’s national hero, Tigran Petrosian (below), was born on June 17, 1929. His parents died during World War II, and as a teenager, he swept streets in the day and devoured chess books at night. He became the then youngest-ever grandmaster in 1952, and on May 20, 1963, beat Russia’s Mikhail Botvinnik to become the ninth official world chess champion. Petrosian died in 1984.
has set up broader funding. In 2011, Armenia became the world’s first country to introduce chess as a compulsory subject in schools. Since then, children aged 7-10 have learned how to sacrifice pawns and overthrow kings. “Chess is as important as reading and writing,” says Lputian, who developed the national curriculum in conjunction with educational psychologists, and who has overseen the training of 1,800 chess teachers who have taught it in the Armenian school system. “Children learn to bear the consequences of their actions.” The director is very proud of his academy. He strides through the massive tournament hall (“with grandstands for the press”), shows off the hotel rooms for guest players (“including sauna”) and the gym in the basement (“no success without fitness”). Lputian is an introverted man whose facial expressions rarely reveal what he is thinking. During the tour of his academy, a broad smile is fixed on his face.
HAIK’S HOPE
Armenia’s potentially greatest chess player is a skinny 12-year-old with short hair and bright eyes. Haik Martirosyan was twice European U12 chess champion, and six days a week, he and his mother, Ayser, squeeze into a minibus taxi, alongside 11 other people, for the hour-long, 50km journey to Yerevan. He has three fourhour after-school coaching sessions per week at the chess academy, where he and two other students are trained by a grandmaster, and the same amount of time with a personal coach at home. Haik learned to play chess when he was six years old. “At some point we noticed that he always beat his older opponents,” says his mother, who has given up her work as a nurse to fully support her son’s burgeoning chess career. “He simply wasn’t afraid to make risky moves. He should become a grandmaster as soon as possible.” Haik already answers interview questions like a pro. Standing outside the academy, he clasps his hands behind his back, shirt tucked neatly into his trousers. What do you like about chess? “It is a game for your brain.” Do you sit in front of a chessboard all day? “No, I play football.” Who is your chess hero? “Petrosian, the world champion.” With that, he goes inside the academy to study. On the lesson plan for today: how to open a game. His next big tournament is approaching fast. www.chessacademy.am
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