The monument to the great Armenian chess player, the 9th World Champion of Chess Tigran Petrosian was opened in Yerevan on July 7 of 2006. The monument is located in the street named after Tigran Petrosian, in the metropolitan community Davidashen. The opening ceremony was attended by the president of chess federation of Armenia, and the president of Republic of Armenia Serj Sargsyan. Serj Sarkisian has offered the right to open the monument to members of the Armenian chess players, who have brilliantly won the 37th World Chess Olympiad in Turin.
The author of the monument is the sculptor Norayr Kagranyan. “It is thanks to Tigran Petrosian that chess in Armenia started to develop. Thanks to him, in every house, every yard men began to grasp the basics of the game,” – Serj Sargsyan said. The monument to Tigran Petrosian has become the world’s first monument to a chess player.
Tigran Petrosian was an outstanding Armenian and Soviet Union chess player, International Grandmaster (since 1952), Honored Master of Sports (since 1960), PhD. He has won the title of world chess champion in 1963, winning a classic of Soviet chess Mikhail Botvinnik. In 1966 he defended the title by defeating Boris Spassky. In 1969, Tigran Petrosian has lost the title of strongest chess player of the world, losing the match to Boris Spassky.
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