Armenia Dispatch: 8 Chess Power

by Erik Olsen on

I am playing a little bit of catch-up here since I didn’t much cover part of the day yesterday. I hooked up in the late afternoon with a great guy named Aram, an American Armenian who is involved in the local chess scene. This is a story I am hoping to do while I’m here because almost everyone I talked with about Armenia before coming told me what a big deal chess is here.

Now, I love chess. But I’m about as “recreational” a player as they get. Every so often I’ll have an inspired game and do something I’m proud of, but most of the time I muddle through as a rather poor intermediate player…the kind of guy good chess players eat for breakfast. So I thought that in addition to doing a little reporting, it might be fun to come here and try to scare up a game. The problem is, I would get whooped here by 8 year olds.

So as a side hobby (he holds a PhD in bio-mechanics from Harvard) Aram works in Yerevan with the Armenian Chess Academy, which not only holds chess tournaments here and there, but also helps teach young people how to play. The federation was located in a non-descript building a few blocks away from the Marriott, where I am staying. I met up with Aram there as well as with a very intense-looking dude named Smbat Lputyan, who, it turns out, is a Grand Master chess player (Aram explained the ranking system to me…that is, how someone reaches Grand Master status, but it’s too complicated to explain here). Suffice it to say, Smbat is the kind of guy who could probably beat me in chess in three moves or less while watching TV, talking on the phone and juggling.

I chatted with Aram for a while and learned a great deal about Armenian domination in chess. As he put it, when people discuss small countries like Armenia, they are accustomed to saying things like “per capita, Armenia has more grand masters than most other countries…” but for Armenia, he says, you can dump “per capita”. He then opened me the fide web site showing how many Armenians are in the big time, chess-wise. It’s very impressive. The Russians are big players, too, as you might have guessed (although probably the biggest name in chess, Gary Kasparov, who is Russian, was actually born of an Armenian mother. So there you go.)

Anyway, I hung out at the chess academy for a while, and learned a great deal about chess and Armenia’s unusual strength in the sport. There were a few kids in the academy’s training rooms, sitting behind chess pieces and looking at them very intently, notebooks open next to them so they could log their moves. I had a momentary impulse to ask for a game, but then decided against it. It would ruin my ego to be destroyed by someone under ten.

I am going to head to a competition tomorrow (Sat) to check it out, in fact, look forward to watching some of the best kids in the world play each other as I look on.

Armenia Dispatch: 5: Sevan and Khor Virap

by Erik Olsen on

Just a quick note picking up from yesterday…after we left Geghard we headed for Lake Sevan where we climbed a squat hill to the two monasteries there. The view from up there was magnificent, and the whole blue lake was spread out before us. The weather has been ideal, about 75 degrees, with a bright yellow sun and blue skies, and I could have sat there on a bench watching the fishermen on the lake for hours. It was peaceful and beautiful, about as much as you can ask for a place to deliver.

We ate lunch at a restaurant near the lake and enjoyed raw vegetables and lavash bread (becoming a favorite of mine), and then platefuls of freshly caught lake Seven fish. We drank some Erebunie beers (also superb) and enjoyed the fish and vegetables and lavash bread with a delicious yoghurt sauce and the whole scene pretty much kicked ass.

We then drove back to Yerevan and headed out to the monastery at Khor Virap, which is out in the countryside and sits (in most pictures anyway) in front of the looming face of Mount Ararat. It was too bright and hazy to see Ararat very well, but I climbed a hill overlooking the monastery and a cemetary and took a panoramic photo, which I will put together and show in the future.

Khor Virap was very cool, though, and rich in history, as it is said this is where St. Gregory the Illuminator, who brought Christianity to Armenia so long ago, was imprisoned.

So, heading out now into the city. More later.

Photo of the Day: (9/21/05) Armenia

by Erik Olsen on

Figured I’d upload one of my photos here in Armenia as POTD. The fact is, I have a bunch of them to upload, but right now my connection isn’t so sweet, so I’m just doing this one.

This shot is from the Geghard Monastery, which I mentioned yesterday. The shot is of the priest inside spreading incense.

Armenia Dispatch: 4 A Bit of a Primer

by Erik Olsen on

So I left off saying that Armenia is a country that is only beginning to recognize its promise as a travel destination. My guess is that many people don’t even know where Armenia is, and so I figured I’d talk a little bit about the country.

Well, the fact is that Armenia is surrounded by a lot of folks you probably HAVE heard of. Namely, Iran, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. And my guess is that with the exception of Turkey, these countries are also not on the top of your travel list (although perhaps we should all expand our horizons a bit…I am told that Iran, for example, is a superb place to see). But Armenia especially deserves consideration. Why? Because there are some things happening here right now that are changing the face of the country, and because Armenia has some unusual characteristics that make it a very appealing destination, even if you’re just stopping by on the way to some place else.

The first big thing happening is modernization and Westernization. As a former Soviet republic that only gained independence in 1991, Armenia has been locked in a post-Soviet stupor that it is only now emerging from….or so the folks I’ve been talking to tell me. Basic democratic freedoms that are less vibrant in other countries nearby are alive and well here. People feel free to speak their minds, and they are building a culture of tolerance and freedom. People are building successful businesses, examining their place in the world. They want to play a larger role, and their culture It is a very exciting time for Armenia.

Another thing is that Armenians (already very friendly and welcoming) are particularly fond of Americans. They are a Christian nation surrounded by Muslim nations. Many people speak English and/or several other languages. I was out last night with a couple of guys who between them spoke German, Spanish, French, Armenian, English (perfectly), Japanese and Italian. The fact is, more Armenians live outside of Armenia than inside the country. The reasons for this are several, but include the genocide around the First World War, the Soviet occupation and to seek a better life in general. Many of these Diaspora Armenians, as they are called, ended up in the US, mostly California, and so they are completely versed in American culture. And now many of these so-called Diaspora Armenians are heading back here to live and build up the country, to make it a viable Western democracy, which, although there are some problems (corruption and so forth) it is doing.

Anyway, I don’t want to speak in such detail about a place I’ve only been visiting for a short time. What I write here is based partly on what I’ve read, but also significantly on what I’ve learned in talking to people on the streets and while hanging out in Yerevan. As I said, I am impressed and excited for this small country. It is very much the kind of place that Americans should celebrate and support. Western-looking, entrepreneurial and enterprising, rich in culture, friendly and open…I honestly think you should check it out. (and if any of this seems rambling and nonsensical…forgive me. I was out until 2 am last night and just woke up)

Armenia Dispatch: 3 Tourism

by Erik Olsen on

Well I have to confess that today was a day of rather basic sightseeing. I got hooked up with a group that headed out into the Armenian countryside to see some of the old monasteries and to hang out at Lake Sevan.

The drive out of Yerevan was wonderful. Armenia, you might remember, was a Soviet satellite state, part of the Soviet Union, albeit one of the smaller, more distant places within Moscow’s reach. But that didn’t stop the Soviets from erecting all sorts of clunky, but strangely fascinating, iconography around the country. Many of the buildings in and around Yerevan bear the ugly stamp of Soviet era architecture. Still, as unsightly as some of these places are, there is something about them, because we know the era is now dead, that gives them an odd appeal; they have become kitsch.

This morning, we headed out on the highway first thing…well, not first thing, first thing was to grab a cup of Armenian coffee, thick, gritty stuff that packs a wallop. It is wonderful. And entirely sufficient to start the day. There are no Starbucks in Yerevan. Not yet.

We drove out the highway to Garni Temple, a fancy little Greek-like structure on a plateau in the mountains. The temple itself was rebuilt recently, and while it was pretty cool, the surroundings, the wide open mountain faces around the temple, were actually more interesting.

We then headed to a really cool place called the Geghard Monastery, which is nestled in the mountains about 30 miles outside the city. This is a lovely place. The rocks are a magnificent reddish color, and they loom over the temple like a massive wall. Inside, the temple was nearly black, except for the glow of candlelight which barely lit the haze of incense smoke to create a very cool effect. An Armenian priest inside swung a pot full of burning incense, so that the smoke permeated the air.

There were some Armenian pilgrims there, lighting candles and saying prayers. There were also a few tourists, but they were all Armenian. None of them were either American or European. This brings up a very interesting thing about being here right now. Armenia is largely undiscovered. For three days now the only Americans I’ve seen have been Diaspora Armenians from Glendale or Fresno. I did see one French and one German group of tourists at lake Sevan, but that is it. As a result the hucksters at the tourist areas number only a few, and the ones that are there, selling bread or handmade jewelry, are not ornery or aggressive as they are in places like India.

I guess the point is, if you are looking for a place still raw and unbesmirched by tourism, Armenia is certainly one place to consider.

Well, I am off to a dinner, so have to cut this entry short, but I’ll file again when I am back later tonight.