Chess in Armenia

Chess has been played in Armenia since the early Middle Ages; however, it was institutionalized during the early Soviet period. Highly popular in Armenia today, chess gained widespread recognition during the 1960s, when Soviet Armenian grandmaster Tigran Petrosian became the World Chess Champion. A country of about three million people, Armenia is considered one of the strongest chess nations today. Among countries, Armenia has one of the most chess grandmasters per capita.

Since the country's independence, the Armenian men's chess team has won the European Team Championship (1999), the World Team Championship (2011) and the Chess Olympiad (2006, 2008, 2012). The women's team had its crowning victory at the 2003 European Championship. As of February 2016, Armenia ranks seventh in the world by the average rating of its top players.Levon Aronian, Armenia's best chess player, is currently world No. 4 in the FIDE rankings. Aronian was a World Champion candidate several times.

Since the 2011–12 school year, chess lessons have been made part of the curriculum in every public school in Armenia, making it the first country in the world to make chess mandatory in schools.

Until the early 20th century, chess was known in Armenian as čatrak (ճատրակ), from Middle Persian Chatrang. Today, that term—pronounced jadrag—is only used in Western Armenian, which is spoken in the Armenian diaspora. In modern Eastern Armenian, which is the variation of Armenian used in the Republic of Armenia, chess is known as šaxmat շախմատ [ʃɑχmɑt]. It is derived from Russian šáxmaty (шахматы), itself a derivative from Persian šâh mât (شاه مات), literally meaning "the king is at a loss."

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