Team of convicts of Armenia takes 3rd place at international chess tournament

The "Chess for Freedom" Program kicked off on 11 May with an online conference and international tournament with the convicts of the four participant countries — Armenia, Russia, Spain, and the USA.

The "Chess for Freedom" Program initiated by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office is aimed at introduction of chess as a tool for education and social inclusion in prisons in different countries. The project is carried out under the patronage of 12^th World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov.

Armenia was represented at the World Online Chess Conference by the convicts who were selected based on the results of the chess tournament that took place at "Armavir" Penitentiary Institution, including Robert Sargsyan, Igit Grigoryan, Rubik Mkrtchyan and Narek Hovakimyan from “Armavir” Penitentiary Institution, and Armen Goroyan from "Hrazdan" Penitentiary Institution. The convicts were trained by chess grandmaster Gevorg Harutyunyan.

During the press conference held before the tournament, Founder and President of the Chess Academy, four-time champion of Armenia, chess grandmaster Smbat Lputyan expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Justice and the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice for the fruitful co-operation and noted that it has already been a month since, for example, "Nubarashen" Penitentiary Institution has launched activities for teaching and popularising chess at penitentiary institutions. The chess grandmaster expressed confidence that the activities will be ongoing, and chess courses will be organised at all penitentiary institutions.

Deputy Minister of Justice Armen Hovhannisyan expressed gratitude to the organisers and the Chess Federation of Armenia for providing the convicts with such an opportunity and emphasised that the Ministry of Justice has already managed to establish sustainable co-operation and organise a number of events with the Chess Federation of Armenia. "Chess serves as an effective tool for developing the two psychological qualities of a person, that is, intellect and creative thinking. Chess fans can also state that every move in chess requires a creative solution. From this perspective, I attach importance to the fact that the beneficiaries of this Program are persons deprived of liberty who are isolated from the society; thus, it is of vital significance for them to fill their days by doing something useful," the Deputy Minister noted and added that all efforts for persons deprived of liberty are targeted at their re-socialisation.

First Deputy Head of the Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice, Major General of Justice Artak Harutyunyan also attached importance to the need to engage convicts in such programmes and noted that preparing a person for a normal life in the society is a long and difficult process. "When a person is occupied with something and has such values, he or she looks at the criminal world and at social and national values differently. During our conversations with prisoners, we see this in separate cases," the First Deputy Head of the Penitentiary Service emphasised and attached importance to ensuring of continuity of the actions aimed at making sure convicts are occupied with something.

The team of convicts of Armenia took the honourable 3^rd place at the international online chess tournament. The team of Russia took 1^st place.

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, who was attending the event summing up the results of the tournament, expressed gratitude to the convicts for their participation and congratulated them on a well-deserved victory.

Let us also inform that the team of Armenia will also participate in the Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners on 13-14 October.