Today, on 11 June, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, the Penitentiary Service and the Chess Federation of Armenia organised a regular event (blitz chess tournament) for re-socialisation of convicts at "Nubarashen" Penitentiary Institution of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, and the tournament was well-received among convicts, who were very excited.

The arbiter of the chess tournament was Yura Ghazaryan. Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Tigran Khachikyan, Head of the Department for Drafting of Anti-Corruption and Penitentiary Policies of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Karen Hakobyan, Deputy Head of the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, Colonel of Justice Hayk Kochinyan and Armenian chess player, grandmaster, four-time champion of Armenia and founding President of the Chess Academy of Armenia Smbat Lputyan were also present.

In his opening remarks before the launch of the tournament, Tigran Khachikyan wished everyone a productive game and particularly mentioned the following: "This tournament will be the effective circle that will cut the convicts off from their everyday psychological situation and help them move toward this competition, toward the game of mind. This also serves as a tool for re-socialisation, and we are disposed to make such events permanent in order to alleviate more or less the spiritual burden on convicts today.”

Wishing the participants victories, founding President of the Chess Academy of Armenia Smbat Lputyan added that the four greatest chess players of all the penitentiary institutions of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia will have the opportunity to participate in the online chess tournament for the penitentiary institutions of the 8 strongest chess countries.

There were 27 convicts participating in the sporting event, 25 of which have life sentence. Sergey Movsisyan and Artur Kostanyan, who are convicts with life sentences, won the second and third places, respectively, and Arman Mnatsakanyan won the honourable first place. The winners received certificates.

Source: Penitentiary Service

At the end of the tournament, the organisers congratulated all the participants, emphasising the importance of such events from the perspective of organising of leisure and productive daily activities and re-socialisation of persons deprived of liberty.