On November 29 the Armenian chess players, who won in the 38^th World Olympiad in Dresden were the guests of the National Assembly. The NA Vice Speakers, the MPs, the members of personnel attended the meeting with them.

Welcoming the chess players and the guests, RA NA Speaker Mr Hovik Abrahamyan said: “Today at the Gilded Hall the Armenian chess players’ successive victory gathered us.

In the 38^th World Olympiad in Dresden after Turin, for the second time the Armenian national team won the Olympic gold. This fact today is already a history, in the joy of our victory, as if, we have left in oblivion that at the beginning of the Olympiad our national team was considered only the 9^th by its rating.

However, in Dresden our grandmasters due to their individual unequalled proficiency and team game confirmed their advantage towards all of them, confirmed that Armenia is a chess superpower, and the Armenian chess players have their deserved place in the world chess.

To say that in Armenia the people like chess and know to play chess is little. Chess, in general, is one of the accepted oldest games in Armenia that the Armenian kings used to play, calling it chatrak and placing golden figures on the chessboard. Today, their best traditions continue our chess kings bringing gold medals to the Motherland.

The specialists can argue long – is the chess art or sport? In my opinion, chess is both art and sport that requires from the chess player creative way of thinking and quick reaction, endurance and will, striving for victory and flexibility, also proficiency worthy for an artist.

All the men of our national chess team are just like that! The play of Levon Aronyan, Gabriel Sargsyan, Vladimir Hakobyan, Tigran Petrosyan and Artashes Minasyan has already become a high school of chess art, and their coach Arshak Petrosyan can fully consider himself an artist-coach.

We are grateful for your glorious victory that granted all of us living in Armenia and outside Armenia holiday and happiness, and arose exceptional moments of solidarity and unity, joy of victory in their hearts. We are grateful to everybody and to each of you that you could raise the flag of the Republic of Armenia for the second place in the chess world. You won the strongest from the strongest, and with that your victory becomes more valuable.

I congratulate you, and we are sure that Dresden will be the beginning of new victories.

I congratulate once again on behalf of the National Assembly and on my behalf and I wish that our victories will become the best tradition that we will still today continue thousands of young players studying the chess alphabet, dreaming to repeat and surpass you.”

By the decision of the NA Speaker for the brilliant victory in the 38^th World Chess Olympiad the coach of the men’s national chess team of Armenia, international grandmaster Arshak Petrosyan, grandmasters Levon Aronyan, Gabriel Sargsyan, Vladimir Hakobyan, Tigran Petrosyan and Artashes Minasyan were awarded the Medal of Honour of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and souvenirs.

The coach of the team Arshak Petrosyan thanked on behalf of the team and promised to keep high the sport honour of the Republic of Armenia from now on and make all efforts for achieving new victories.