How Armenia’s “David Beckham of Chess” became national hero: CNN

PanARMENIAN.Net - When Levon Aronian walks down the street in his native Armenia he's met by cheering crowds, CNN writes, referring to the chess player as Armenia’s national hero and “the David Backham of chess.”

Aronian isn't an actor, activist, or astronaut. He's a chess player -- the fourth best in the world, to be precise. And in this tiny, ex-Soviet, chess-obsessed country, that means he's also a national hero, CNN says.

“The red carpet treatment of players isn't so far-fetched in a country where chess is compulsory in all schools. Here, even the nation's President Serzh Sargsyan is also President of the Armenia Chess Federation. For a nation of just three million, Armenia has one of the highest numbers of grandmasters per capita in the world. Of the past five Chess Olympiads, the national team has won three times -- led by noneother than idol Aronian,” the news agency reports.

These days the chess prodigy spends around four hours a day training. He usually travels seven months a year -- playing at international tournaments offering anywhere between a few thousand and over a million dollars in prize money. To really understand the country's love of chess, you must head to the streets, CNN suggests.

"You see people playing chess in cafes, in parks, at family gatherings, among young and old alike," says Professor Aram Hajian, Dean at the College of Science and Engineering at the American University of Armenia, and co-founder of the Chess Academy of Armenia.

“Even for a small and chess-loving nation like Armenia, rolling out the sport to every single school in 2011 was no easy task. For the Armenian government, the benefits of nurturing a nation of chess players far outweighed the logistical nightmare. And it's an approach being watched closely by educators around the world,” the media giant goes on to say.

According to CNN, Armenia's modern-day love affair with chess owes a lot to one man - 1960s world champion Tigran Petrosian: “The moment Petrosian beat Soviet Mikhail Botvinnik to become 1963 World Chess Champion (a title he held until 1969), has been likened JFK's assassination in America - everyone in Armenia remembers where they were at the time.”

For a country with such a tumultuous history, chess has now also become an important source of Armenian national pride.

"We're not just a nation of people who struggle and fight. We're also a nation of people who can come back to the days of our glory when we were a big country, a country who set new rules," explained Aronian.

"When you travel to Armenia you see all those monasteries, all those universities that are 1,500 years old and you always feel “this is what we are.” We have been a nation that had a lot of intellectual capability.

"So I think what drove people to chess, is to bring back the feeling that we were once a scientific nation."

And if Aronian is any indication -- it's a winning move, CNN concludes.