Entries tagged as ‘Sport’
World Cup Qualifying: Armenia 2-1 Belgium Match Highlights
September 10, 2009 · 1 Comment
Armenia won a surprise victory against Belgium in World Cup Qualifying game on September 9. The much needed first victory in this World Cup Qualifying round comes ahead of the anticipated football match with Turkey in October, which has become more of a political event, rather than sport. (more…)
Categories: Armenia · Politics · Sport · Turkey
Tagged: Armenia, Sport
Armenia – a World Chess Superpower!
November 28, 2008 · Leave a Comment
“The Armenian chess team is again the strongest in the world. Armenian chess players beat the Chinese team with the score 2.5:1.5 at the World Chess Olympiad held in Dresden, thus retaining the Champions title. Armenia had first gained the title in 2006.” A1plus blog has commented on the national team’s victory, adding – “It turns out that our tiny Armenia is in fact a Chess Superpower. Well done our boys…”
The 2008 Chess Olympiad was constantly in the center of Pataphysicus blog’s attention, which kept its readers updated with the latest news and analyses on the course of the games. The blog had special coverage on the 11th – final round of the Olympiad – providing fresh updates nearly every 20 minutes. No wonder that at 17:50, it was one of the first to announce with joy: “Armenia is the Olympic Champion. Congratulations to us all”.
Over the next hours Armenian bloggers flooded the internet with congratulations and highlighted the names of victorious generals of bloodless chess-wars: Levon Aronian, Vladimir Hakobian, Tigran Petrossian, Gabriel Sargsian.
Naysaikus also noted the victory of Geogian women’s team. “We are the best among men, Georgians – among women. Together we can claim the title of “world’s smartest piece of land”, the blog has remarked.
The victory of Armenian chess team has a greater significance for Infernoarm in terms of internal political developments in Armenia. The Armenian society, deeply divided by bitter political confrontation and post-election violence as a result of 2008 February presidential elections,l had not been so united for months. The Olympic gold, for once, made many forget their differences. “We won, despite the March 1 violence and all the negative developments in the country throughout the past year. Perhaps this is one of the reasons, why this Olympic gold is more valuable than the previous one. We were waiting for ourselves. We were able to withstand. We won the fight against ourselves”,- Infernoarm has commented exactly on this aspect of Chess victory. So has Nazarian, noting: “There is a depressing deficit of good news coming out of Armenia. But fortunately we sometimes come across occasions that should be celebrated.”
At least one Armenian blogger – Macbeck, has taken time to visit the scene of Olympiad in Dresden. The blogger has posted photos and brilliant comments, showing the Armenian team at play on the 10-th, pre-final round of Olympic games, which were recognized by many as the best, most vivid coverage of this years Chess Olympics. This Russian langauge entry by Macbeck is a must for those, wishing to get the feel of what its like to be at the center of Chess Olympic games and warrying, along with players and trainers and fans, for the victory of our national team.
Download the Armenian language Podcast of this entry or listen to it online by clicking the player icon below.
Categories: Armenia
Tagged: Armenia, Chess, Olympiad, Podcasts, Sport
Armenia won the World Chess Olympiad for the second time!
November 25, 2008 · 2 Comments
Having defeated China, the Armenian national chess team has just won the Champion’s title at the World Chess Olympiad 2008 held in Dresden.
Tigran Petrosian defeated Chao Li, bringing the golden point to the Armenian team. The games between the pairs Levon Aronian – Yue Wang, Vladimir Hakobian – Xiangzhi Bu, Gabriel Sargissian – Hua Ni ended in a draw.
The nearest competitor, Ukraine is badly loosing to the US team. Israel also has some remote chances of catching up with our team if they beat the Netherlands, but with additional indicators the Armenian team has a serious advantage, so we can already say quite safely, that WE DID IT! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS AGAIN! Well done our champions – Levon Aronian, Vladimir Hakobian, Gabriel Sargissian, Tigran Petrosian!
Abraham defeats Marquez to defend IBF title
November 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Arthur Abraham has knocked out Raul Marquez after six rounds on Saturday, thus defending his IBF middleweight boxing title for the eighth time and remaining undefeated.
Abraham landed two rights to Marquez’s right eye in the sixth round and the challenger’s camp called off the fight just before the seventh was due to start.
“King Arthur” improved his record to 28-0 with 22 knockouts.
“I can’t really understand why he gave up,” Abraham said. “I really wanted to start going at him in earnest starting in the sixth round. But he gave up too early and disappointed the spectators.”
The 37-year-old Marquez, who was the mandatory challenger, said he lost to a better fighter.
Abraham lives in Germany, but maintains close ties with Armenia. Earlier this year he was in Yerevan and appeared in on TV, mentining in a show on Second Armenian TV channel, if I recall correctly, that he dedicates most of his wins to beloved motherland – Armenia.
Podcast: football, censorship and more…
October 17, 2008 · 1 Comment
Football dominated the Armenian blogosphere this week. Virtual discussions focused on the two games of the Armenian football team – both ending in crushing defeats for the Armenian team. Belgium-Armenia 2:0, Bosnia-Armenia 4:1. The scores are painful for the Armenian blogers: Aerial-vortex and Reporter_arm have shared their views.
Life in Armenian Diaspora blog has reflected on Armenia’s football diplomacy in relation to Turkey and the news on the plans to build a new railway connecting Armenia to Iran.
This is great news, as it only has one rail line functioning at the moment, and that is from unreliable Georgia. [] But what is clear is that a new line through Iran is vital for Armenia’s survival and options. Until Armenia has an outlet to the sea, they need to be able to not depend on Turks and Georgians for transportation. The Turks will finally realize that Armenia does have another option and that they’ve missed a big opportunity by not opening the border much earlier. Now Armenia will not be beholden to Turkey’s whims and preconditions. Ever. Or that’s the idea anyway, and they’ll know it. At this point, even if Turkey throws the border gates wide open, the rail project should go ahead.
Unzipped has posted Tigran Paskevichyan’s 10 minute documentary – “Enstrangement”, which was prevented from being screened at Yerevan’s “Moscow” cinema theatre days after another film – by Tigran Khzmalyan this time was also denied the chance to be displayed on the same cinema screen. “Censorship should have no place in Armenia. Censorship should be (and will be) defeated.” – Unzipped says and I so wholeheartedly agree!!!
Anyway, the Podcast of all of the above and more, including an interview with the extreemly prolific blogger 517design (who has recently started also a new English language blog – Armenia Discovered) can be downloaded from here.
You can also listen to the Podcast online by clicking the player icon below:
Categories: Armenia · Iran · Politics · Sport · Turkey
Tagged: Armenia, Armenian blogosphere, football, Iran, Podcasts, Sport, Turkey
Podcast: Armenian blogs on Turkish President’s visit to Armenia
September 12, 2008 · 2 Comments
Following Turkish President Abdulla Gull’s historic visit to Armenia, Armenian bloggers are engaged in active discussions – was it a positive step, or a negative one? Was it right for Armenia’s to invite highest Turkish official to Armenia or not? Even the fact Armenian football team lost 0:2 to Turkey, has been completely overshadowed by Turkish president’s visit. There is also an interview with Latvian blogger Artur Mednis. Download the full podcast here or listen to it online below.
Categories: Armenia · Politics · Turkey
Tagged: Armenia, football, Podcasts, relations, Sport, Turkey
Armenia 2 – 1 Turkey
August 22, 2008 · 1 Comment
Henrik Mkhitaryan scored the late winner in Yerevan (© Khachik Chakhoyan)
Unzipped has an exciting post about the surprise win of the Armenian national youth team (European Championship Qualifying Stage of the Under 21 Championship) over Turkey. Although the game was not that significant and the youth teams are rarely considered important, the fact that the game took place between these two countries which lack diplomatic relations since Turkey closed the Armenian border in 1993 is seen an important first step, to be followed by a game between the national teams of Armenia and Turkey on September 6th.
Although the chances of the Armenian team to win on the September 6 match are rather slim, the win of the youth team has inspired Armenian football fans with renewed confidence.
The game is very promising from a diplomatic perspective as well. Armenian president Serge Sargsian had invited the Turkish president Abdullah Gul to visit Yerevan and watch the game in July. Abdullah Gul has been postponing his decision about accepting or rejecting the invitation. Possible protests in Armenia against Turkish President’s visits are among the reasons for Gul’s hesitation and ARF-Dashnaktsutyun have said they’ll definately stage actions in Yerevan.
At any rate, thousands of Turkish fans are also expected to arrive in Yerevan for the match and the Armenian authorities have already promised to slash visa fees for them. According to some Armenian media reports the Turkish fans have applied to their government asking them to open the Turkey-Armenian border for one day, so they could use the Kars-Gyumri railway to arrive in Armenia and cheer for their team. If true, this might become another significant development in establishing relations between the two neighboring countries.
Categories: Armenia · Sport · Turkey
Tagged: Armenia, border, fans, football, relations, soccer, Sport, Turkey
Round 13: Aronian wins 2nd FIDE Grand Prix in style
August 16, 2008 · 2 Comments
In what can be considered an excellent last round, Levon Aronian became the glorious winner of the 2nd FIDE Grand Prix Tournament in Sochi, Russia. And he did it in style, defeating Alexander Grischuk in a fine positional game. In a crazy game Radjabov beat Karjakin to finish clear second, followed by Wang Yue and Kamsky who share third place.
Levon Aronian (Armenian: Լևոն Արոնյան; born October 6, 1982) is an Armenian chess player. On the April 2008 FIDE list, he had an ELO rating of 2763, making him number six in the world and Armenia’s number one. He was born in Yerevan.
PS: Someone needs to update the Wikipedia entry about Aronian, to include the latest victory.
Categories: Armenia · Sport
Tagged: Armenia, Aronian, Aronyan, Chess, FIDE, Grand Prix, Sport
Armenian team at the Olympics 2008 in Beijing
August 8, 2008 · 23 Comments
The 25 Armenian athletes departing for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, China, will face the 639-strong Chinese, 596-strong US and 470-strong Russian teams. Given the sheer size of the competing teams and the fact, that our national team brought zero gold medals from the past Olympics in Athens, it’s really hard to believe in the success of our tiny Armenian team.
The Olympic torch will be lit in Beijing on 8th month of year 2008, at 8 seconds, 8 minutes past 8 o’clock of local time – as the figure 8 is considered lucky in China. The motto of the Olympics is – “One world, one dream” and that dream will cost China 44 billion dollars – a record amount to be spent on organization of Olympic games.
The history of independent Armenia has only seen one Olympic champion so far – wrestler Armen Nazaryan won Olympic gold in Atlanta, 1996. Overall Armenia has had 13 Olympic champions and we’ve been the best in wrestling, weightlifting, athletics. Clearly the team sports are not one of our strengths.
The Armenian team this year has 6 weightlifters (Hripsime Khurshudyan, Tigran g. Martirosyan, Gevorg Davtyan, Ara Khachatryan, Tigran V. Martirosyan, Edgar Gevorgyan), 4 boxers (Hovhannes Danielyan, Hrachik Javakhyan, Eduard Hambardzumyan, Andranik Hakobyan), 3 free wrestlers (Martin Berberyan, Suren Markosyan, Harutyun Yenokyan), 6 Greco/Roman wrestlers (Roman Amoyan, Karen Mnatsakanyan, Arman Adikyan, Arsen Julfalakyan, Denis Forov, Yuri Patrikeyev), 2 judoists (Hovhannes Davtyan, Armen Nazaryan), 2 track-and-field athletes (Melik Janyan, Ani Khachikyan), 1 swimmer (Mikayel Koloyan) and 1 shooter (Norayr Bakhtamyan).
On my flight to Moscow on July 31st, I was lucky to be on the same plane with our judo team – the guys were wearing the proud uniform of Armenian Olympics team and were sure of their success. Their coaches, however, were more cautious – the Chineeze team is especially strong they said and they have the mental ability of concentrating for the hour of the match in such a manner, that the results resemble that of using doping means. At any rate, the Armenian team has the high sponsorship of Armenian oligarch, head of Armenian Olympic Committee Gagik Tsarukyan, who has promised money, gifts and honor to Armenian gold winners – along with grave threats to make sure they bring home the Olympic gold. Will this kind of ’stick and carrot’ policy force the tiny Armenian team bring medals home? We will see soon – shooter Norayr Bakhtamyan, judoist Hovhannes Davtyan (60 kilos) and boxer Andranik Hakobyan (75 kilos) will be first to compete in Beijing on August 9. All we can do now is prey for them and watch the splendid opening ceremony which is due to start soon and will be broadcast on Armenian Public TV. Go Armenians – Stronger, Faster, Higher!!!
Categories: Armenia · Sport
Tagged: Armenia, Boxing, Gagik Tsarukyan, Oligarch, Olympics, Sport, Wrestling
