Armenia loses to India in friendly chess match; women weightlifters medal

Chess

Armenia’s junior chess team led by 2006 World Junior champion GM Zaven Andreasyan suffered an overall 0.5-2.5 defeat in a three-day friendly match series with India.

Armenia, also involving GM Avetik Grigoryan, Hrant Melkumyan and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (the latter two were awarded GMs titles by the FIDE late last week), lost on Day One of the event at the Russian Cultural Center in New Delhi, but managed to hold their strong Indian coevals to a draw on the second day of play due to the team spearhead Andreasyan scoring a full point against reigning world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta.

On Tuesday, however, the Indians, also featuring GMs S. Arun Prasad, World U-16 champion B. Adhiban and GM norm-holder Deep Sengupta, sealed their victory with a commanding performance winning three games and drawing only in one.

The event had been funded by India’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and organized by the New Delhi Chess Association.

It is not excluded that Armenia and India may play another friendly match in Yerevan next year.

U-21 Armenia’s defeat from Indian coevals came only a week after Armenia’s senior team won their second consecutive title at the World Chess Olympiad in Dresden. In contrast, India’s male players, albeit without their reigning World Champion Vishy Anand, finished only in the 15th place.

Also in Dresden last Friday, the FIDE Congress awarded Grandmaster titles to two Armenian chess players, Hrant Melkumyan and 15 year-old Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (conditional). Ter-Sahakyan’s title will come into force after his official Elo reaches 2500.
Meanwhile, Levon Aronyan (Armenia) and Sergei Movsesian (Slovakia) will participate in a super GM tournament to be held from December 10 to 22, 2008, in Nanjing, China. This will be a six-player double round robin event, in which Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Peter Svilder (Russia) and Bu Xiangzhi (China) will also participate.
(Source: www.armchess.am)

Soccer

2008 League runner-up Ararat will represent Armenia at the CIS and Baltic States Independence Cup to be held in Russia in early January, according to A1 Plus news website.

The country’s longtime champion Pyunik had been banned from taking part in the tournament of former Soviet republics’ national champions after its players, citing security reasons, refused to play Azerbaijan’s champion FC Neftchi Baku in the semi-final of the 2006 tournament.

Pyunik’s reaching the semifinal that year has been the best result achieved by an Armenian club in the tournament held annually since the mid-1990s.

Meanwhile, the Armenian-Turkish ‘soccer diplomacy’ in September of this year appears to be bringing sport dividends to Ankara and Yerevan.

According to Turkish press reports, a Monaco-based organization, “Peace and Sport”, this week has awarded Turkey and Armenia with the 2008 Peace and Sport Image of the Year prize.

The news website, www.worldbulletin.net, writes: “This distinction for the best image of fraternization through sport was awarded for a photograph of the historic handshake between the President of the Republic of Turkey Abdullah Gul and the President of Armenia, Serge Sargsyan, during the qualifying match for the Football World Cup between Turkey and Armenia. Thanks to football, this moment marked the end of nearly two decades of diplomatic silence.”

(Source: A1 Plus, www.worldbulletin.net)

Weightlifting

Two of the three weightlifters representing Armenia at the recent Student Games in Greece brought medals to their nation.

According to Panorama.am, European champion Nazik Avdalyan (69 kg) lifted a total of 215 kilograms in snatch, clean and jerk (95+120) to take the silver. Her success was repeated by teammate Hripsime Khurshudyan (75 kg) who finished second having lifted 241 kilograms on the aggregate (106+135).

(Source: Panorama.am)