American Armenian Grandmaster V. Akobian became the winner of the chess international tournament in San Marino together with Vadim Milov from Switzerland. Akobian and Milov scored 7.5 points in 9 games. 148 chess players, including 30 Grandmasters participated in the tournament.
V. Akobian has been citizen of the USA for the last five years. Together with the US team, he won a bronze medal in the 2006 World Olympiad. In 1998 at the Youth Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, the Armenian national team with Akobian won first place.
Congratulations to Akobian!
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Congrats!
“Gormally’s action was fairly harmless, but he had violated one of the basic laws of nature and evolution, which says: never attack an Armenian. Immediately a random countryman of Aronian, whom we shall call GM X (and who happens to be a reserve player on the US team, rated 2575), rushed forward with murder in his eyes. Figuratively speaking, we believe.
Fortuitously, at this point another grandmaster, a muscle-bound man of superhuman strength, whom we shall call GM Y, intervened energetically in order to prevent the situation from escalating any further. He pinned Gormally to the wall with one hand, while fending off GM X with the other. There was an emergency exit close by, and GM Y quickly popped Gormally out into the fresh air, while making sure that the vengeance-seeking GM X remained in the party room. During the scuffle the wife of Dutch GM Jan Timman took a light grazing blow to the chin – nothing serious, but it left her in tears and in need of comforting.”
Akobian owes an apology to the US team for his actions which could have jeopardized their medal chances. Kudos to Seirawan for doing the right thing and getting in between the players.
I do not think Akobian should be invited to play for the US in the next Olympiad.
anon … i think your comments are a bit harsh without knowing the full story. we should hear akopian’s side.
but on the other hand, this is such a minor situation that it should be reduced to good natured teasing the next time any of them are dancing!
Who cares what Akopian thinks? This is about the behavior of the American chess team. It was minor incident thanks in a large part due to the muscle-bound GM-Y. Akobian is not that special: Shabalov and Gulko or even GM-Y could equally take his place. If this were an individual tournament, then Akobian is free to swing his fists with abandon. But this is a team event. When you choose Akobian you choose him over Gulko and Shabalov. Akobian would only be justified to take a swing at someone if some punk were picking on Nakamura or someone on the US team. If Akobian even pushed GM Y slightly in trying to punch GM X, then Akobian just disrespected a former member of the US chess olympic team, and has no respect for a position he should be honoured to have.