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Winning Move: Chess Reigns as Kingly Pursuit in Armenia - WSJ.com
Is chess such a phenomenon anywhere in India?Reporters stake out Tigran Petrosian's home. Fans seek his autograph. His image is splashed across magazine covers, and his youthful face beams from posters on teenagers' walls.
The sturdy 28-year-old isn't a star athlete or a movie star. He is a chess grandmaster. In this chess-crazy country, that makes him a king among pawns.
"Chess here is like soccer in Brazil or football in America," Mr. Petrosian said over coffee at the Yerevan Chess Academy ahead of a concert to honor the country's top players. The concert featured musicians and singers performing in front of 10-foot-high chess boards while the audience clapped rapturously.
Mr. Petrosian—whose father named him Tigran after a former chess champion with the same surname—is one of a legion of top chess players that have catapulted this poor nation of three million into world beaters on the 64-square board. In September, he was part of the five-man squad that claimed Armenia's second consecutive gold medal at the World Chess Olympiad.
Being good in chess carries big benefits in Armenia. Top players say they struggle to be allowed to pay for gasoline or parking. Restaurant bills sometimes never materialize when they go out to eat.