Varuzhan Akobian

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Not to be confused with Vladimir Akopian .

Varuzhan Akobian
Akobian in 2017
Country Armenia (until 2002)
United States (since 2002)
Born ( 1983-11-19 ) 19 November 1983 (age 40)
Yerevan, Armenian SSR , Soviet Union
Title Grandmaster (2004)
FIDE   rating 2571 (June 2024)
Peak rating 2673 (June 2017)
Peak ranking No. 76 (June 2017)

Varuzhan Akobian ( Armenian : ???????? ???????? , born 19 November 1983 in Yerevan , Soviet Union ) is an Armenian-born American chess Grandmaster . Originally from Armenia , he now resides in St. Louis . He played on the bronze-medal-winning U.S. team in the 2006 and 2008 Chess Olympiads. [1]

Chess career [ edit ]

Akobian, an Armenian American , became an International Master at age 16. In 2001, he moved to the United States and one week after his 20th birthday in November 2003, earned the title of Grandmaster .

He won the World Open tournament in Philadelphia on three separate occasions; he shared first place in 2002 and won it outright in 2004 and 2007. In 2006 he tied for first in the San Marino tournament with a performance rating of 2796. [2] In 2007 he tied for 1st?8th with Hikaru Nakamura , Alexander Shabalov , Darmen Sadvakasov , Zviad Izoria , Victor Mikhalevski , Magesh Chandran Panchanathan and Justin Sarkar in the Miami Open [3] and came equal first in the American Continental Championship in Cali, Colombia . [4] This qualified him for the Chess World Cup 2007 , where he was eliminated in the first round. He also took part in the Chess World Cup 2009 and was knocked out by Ruslan Ponomariov in the second round. [5]

In 2007, Akobian was featured on MTV 's True Life documentary series, in an episode titled "I'm a Genius". [6]

In May 2014, he was the fifth highest-rated player in the US, with a FIDE rating of 2643. [7] In that month, while playing the U.S. Chess Championship at Saint Louis he tied for first with Gata Kamsky and Aleksandr Lenderman , going to a three players playoff to decide who would become champion. In an Armageddon Game he defeated Lenderman and went on to a Rapid Match against Kamsky that ended 1.5 for Kamsky to 0.5 to Akobian, granting Kamsky the title and making Akobian the runner-up in the 2014 U.S. Chess Championship. [8]

Akobian currently serves as assistant coach for the Saint Louis University chess team. [9]

References [ edit ]

  1. ^ Varuzhan Akobian player profile and games at Chessgames.com
  2. ^ THE WEEK IN CHESS 606 19 June 2006
  3. ^ Crowther, Mark (1 October 2007). "TWIC 673: Miami Chess Open" . London Chess Center . Retrieved 21 May 2010 .
  4. ^ THE WEEK IN CHESS 663 23 July 2007
  5. ^ Crowther, Mark (15 December 2009). "The Week in Chess: FIDE World Cup Mini-Site 2009" . Chess.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 October 2011 . Retrieved 16 December 2011 .
  6. ^ "True Life" I'm a Genius (2007) , IMDb [ unreliable source? ]
  7. ^ "May 2014: Standard rating" . FIDE .
  8. ^ U.S. Chess Championship Official Site
  9. ^ "SLU Chess Team Player Profiles" . Saint Louis University . Retrieved 12 January 2022 .

External links [ edit ]

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