Varuzhan Akobian

Varuzhan Akobian in Wijk aan Zee 2010
Association	Armenia (until 2002) United States (since 2002)
Born	November 19, 1983 Yerevan , Soviet Union
title	International Master (2000) Grand Master (2004)
Current  Elo rating	2614 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2673 (June 2017)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Varuzhan Akobian ( Armenian Վարուժան Հակոբյան / Waruschan Hakobjan ; born November 19, 1983 in Yerevan , Armenian SSR , Soviet Union ) is a former Armenian , now American chess grandmaster . He is not to be confused with the Armenian Grand Master Vladimir Hakobjan , led by FIDE as Vladimir Akopian .

The beginnings

When Akobian was five years old, his father had a long work assignment in Mongolia . There he learned to play chess at his father's request, as he shouldn't play outside because of the adverse climate. When the family returned to Armenia two years later, he went to the Tigran Petrosyan chess school , named after the former world champion . In January 2001, Akobian moved to California , where he acquired American citizenship and has played for the US Chess Federation since 2002 .

In Armenia he was trained by IM Ashot Nadanyan and Gagik Sarkissjan.

successes

Akobian was Armenian youth champion in the age groups U10 (1993), U12 (1995) and U16 (1998). In 2000, at the age of 16, he met the standards for the title of International Master , which he was awarded in November of the same year. In the USA he won more than a dozen tournaments from 2001 onwards. In 2004 he became a grandmaster . He achieved the first norm for this in July 2002 at the 30th World Open in Philadelphia (which he won in the 32nd edition in 2004 and in the 35th edition in 2007), the second norm at the Imre Konig invitation tournament in September 2002 in San Francisco and the third standard November 2003 at the Eduard Gufeld Memorial in Los Angeles . He won the San Marino Open in 2006 with an Elo rating of 2800. In July 2007 he was second behind Julio Ernesto Granda Zúñiga at the Continental Championships in Cali . In April 2009 he won a competition against reigning national champion Yury Shulman over six quick games (result 3.5: 2.5) and eight blitz games (result 6: 2), in which it was a prize fund of 10,000 US dollars.

An episode of True Live the music channel MTV , titled I'm a Genius , Original on 8 March 2007, portrays Akobian.

National team

With the United States team, Akobian took part in the 2006 , 2008 , 2012 and 2014 Chess Olympiads and finished third with the team in 2006 and 2008. He also took part in the World Team Championships 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2017 in part. In 2010 he reached second place with the team, in 2013 he won the individual ranking of reserve players. In 2013 Akobian also won the Pan-American Team Championship with the US selection and achieved the second-best result on the second board.

societies

In the United States Chess League Akobian played from 2010 to 2012 for the Seattle Sluggers , with whom he won the title in 2012 , from 2013 to 2015 he was part of the team of the St. Louis Arch Bishops , with which he became champions in 2014 . At the 1st City Chess Championship in 2012 in al-Ain , he played on the top board of the city of Chicago .

Web links

Commons : Varuzhan Akobian  - Collection of Images

• Official Homepage (English)
• Replayable chess games by Varuzhan Akobian on chessgames.com (English)
• Film of a blitz game between Akobian and Hikaru Nakamura

Individual evidence

1. ↑ GM application to FIDE (English)
2. ↑ Akobian Wins Californian Challenge on uschess.org (English)
3. ↑ Varuzhan Akopian's results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
4. ↑ Varuzhan Akopian's results at the World Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
5. ↑ Varuzhan Akopian's results at Pan-American Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
6. ↑ Varuzhan Akobian's results at the World City Chess Championships on olimpbase.org (English)