On June 26, the AGBU Armenian Virtual College (AVC) together with Chess Academy of Armenia held the Online Closing Ceremony of the first Pan-Armenian Chess Tournament (PACT).Held on June 8-26, 2020 through the AVC interactive online learning platform the virtual tournament attracted over 520 participants from 36 counties all over the World.

The online ceremony was opened with welcomingmessagesfromthe AGBU AVC Founding President, Dr. YervantZorian, describing the goals and objective of this tournament,and the President of the Chess Academy of Armenia, GrandmasterSmbatLputian, referring to the impact of chess on strategic thinking.

After the introductory part, the three Champions of the Pan-Armenian Chess Tournament 2020 were announced:

• The 1st prize went to 16 years old Sargis Sargsyan from Vanadzor, Lori region of Armenia,
• The 2nd prize went to 14 years old Kirk Ghazarian from the California, USA.
• The 3rd prize went to 16 years old Tigran Arzumanyan from Goris, Syunik region of Armenia.

All the winners were awarded with dedicated certificates and special gift cards from AGBU AVC.

“The idea of creating this innovative tournament was not only to attain the winners. But rather, it was most importantly to create a dynamiconline community of chess loving students with world-wide participation”, emphasized Dr. YervantZorian congratulating the winners.

Representing the tournament sponsorAGBU, Vasken Yacoubian, the President of AGBU Armenia delivered a heartfelt encouraging message.

Partitioned to five geographic regions - Armenia and Artsakh, Asia and Oceania, Europe, Americas, Middle East and Africa - the tournament was structured in two stages, five regional semi-finals and three rounds of the final games. The first stage was played by the participants from each region united to come up with three finalists. At the second stage, three challenging rounds of the final tournament brought together the finalists to contest the PACT Winner title. Between the tournaments, the participants were able to visit the AVC page dedicated to PACT to take part in online chess activities with renown Armenian champions and learn new chess skills from multimedia interactive AVC Chess courses.

The Pan-Armenian Chess Tournament’s regional semi-finals’ winners are:

The finalists from Armenia& Artsakh:

1st place - Sargis Sargsyan, Vanadzor, Lori, age 16
2nd place - Tigran Arzumanyan, Goris, Syunik, age 16
3rd place - Menua Hakobyan, Yerevan, age 12

The finalists from Middle East & Africa:

       
1st place - Kevork Yeghian, Aleppo, Syria, age 16
2nd place - Edward Iskandarian, Beirut, Lebanon, age 14
3rd place - ArsenKenian , Aleppo, Syria, age 9

The finalists from Europe:

1st place - Daniel Karapetyan Hakobyan, Barcelona, Spain, age 13
2nd place - DimitriosLevonZakarian, Oxford, UK, age 12
3rd place - Henrik Serobyan

The finalists from America:

1st place – Kirk Ghazarian, California, USA, age 14
2nd place – Suren Ghazarian, Saskatchewan, Canada, age 15
3rd place – Ethan Boldi, California, USA, age 13

The finalist from Asia & Oceania: Shahan Abu Sayeed, New Dehli, India, age 9

“I was happy to have an opportunity to take part in the online First Pan-Armenian Chess Tournament organized by the AGBU Armenian Virtual College. Thanks to this contest, I made friends with players from different parts of the world”, Kevork Yeghian, the first place finalist of the Middle East and Africa said.

The closing event was attended by over twenty renown Armenian chess champions and chess lovers from around the world. The winners received heartfelt congratulations and best wishes from the two-time Chess Olympic Champion, Grandmaster Tigran L. Petrosyan, and the European Women Team Champion, Woman Grandmaster Lilit Mkrtchian. Two PACT finalists Ethan Boldi form San Carlos, CA, USA and Kevork Yeghian from Aleppo, Syria expressed their gratitude to the organizers and shared their wonderful impressions from the contest.

At the end of the awards ceremony, the participants were invited to take part in a short quiz and win additional prizes. In addition, the Chess Academy of Armenia had prepared a special surprise for all participants, a live blitz chess match between two Armenian women chess champions, European Women team Champion Elina Danielyan, and Russian Women Rapid Champion Karina Ambartsumova. The hot match was emotionally commented by U.S. Women Vice-Champion Tatev Abrahamyan and U.S. Vice-Champion Varuzhan Akobian.