WASHINGTON — With a final round tomorrow, Armenian chess players perform an awe-inspiring series of matches at the U20 World chess tournament which is taking place in India’s Gujarat. Between June 1, when the games kicked off, and today, 125 chess players from 44 nations have completed 10 rounds. Armenia’s Emin Ohanian, Mamikon Gharibian and Arsen Davtyan participate in the men’s tournament, known also as ‘Open Tournament’ in chess lingo. Mariam Mkrtchian and Milena Gasparian partake in the women’s championship.
Gharibian, who was 15th in the ranking table on the starting day, climbed to the top and is leading one day before the last round. In the previous 10 tours, this young Armenian prodigy won seven games, tied two, and lost one. Moving up on the ranking table, he had to play two games against other Armenian participants: the June 12 game Garibian won against Rudik Makarian from Russia. Two days before, he had defeated Emin Ohanian. June 13, Mamikon will play against Kazakstan’s Nogerbek Kazybek who occupies the 2nd place of the table. Emin Ohanian stands in third place and will play against a grandmaster from the Philippines.
The June 12 victory against a chess master from Sri Lanka, allowed Mariam Mkrtchian to maintain her position on the 2nd horizontal of the women’s ranking table, a spot she has held for nearly a week. So far, Mkrtchian has shown outstanding results, suffering no defeats and winning or drawing all 10 games against chess players representing India, Azerbaijan, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, and Turkmenistan. She is only 0.5 scores behind the leader, Divya Deshmukh, from India. On June 9, the two leaders tied in a quick 24-move game.
Tomorrow, Mariam will play against another Indian GM, Rakshita Ravi. Meanwhile, Deshmukh will compete against a Bulgarian woman chess player. Mariam became world chess champion two years ago in Russia, but together with other Armenian players, refused to participate in the 2023 U20 world tournament held in Azerbaijan.
On a special note: the chief arbiter of the world tournament is Ashot Vardapetyan from Yerevan.
