Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received Mariam Mkrtchyan, a member of the Armenian women’s chess team, winner of the world and European U-18 championships, and her coach Zaven Andriasian. Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Vahram Dumanyan and Deputy Minister of Education Karen Giloyan also attended the meeting.

In his welcoming speech, Prime Minister Pashinyan particularly said:

“Dear Mariam,

Dear Zaven,

I congratulate you and all of us, also your parents and friends, on this important victory. We value it very much and are very excited about your success. And the main question I ask, and we ask ourselves, is: What should we do to support your talent to develop and bring new and greater victories to Armenia?

I must say at once that this is a state policy for us, because I also want to draw attention to the fact that in the strategy of transformation of Armenia until 2050, we have set a goal that the representative of the Republic of Armenia should win the title of individual world chess champion. And we are now looking for candidates, because, fortunately or unfortunately, the government, ministers, deputy ministers can hardly do that, and we need candidates to support them to make that goal achievable. I don’t want those goals to be perceived as unrealistic, because the history of chess in Armenia has already brought its objective benefits, and we just have to conduct the right policy and implement that policy.

Of course, it is not directly related to the topic, but I also want you to know that we are now thinking about creating a talent support fund in Armenia. More precisely, we are not thinking, we have already made the decision; we are thinking how to make it more effective. What will the foundation be about? First of all, the government’s policy will be to create the maximum opportunity in terms of both general education and other areas of education, including physical education and sports, so that the talent of our children could express themselves as much as possible. Self-expression, so to speak, is the basic issue, but in the process of self-expression, naturally, there will be particularly hard-working people, because I believe that talent is not always the right word. The right word is diligence, because first of all, it is a person who reveals the talent inside himself with his hard work, because I believe that all people are equally talented, another thing is how objective and subjective conditions contribute to it. Now the objective condition is to bring the educational system to a proper condition, the subjective condition is already connected with the environment. coach, environment and so on.

Now the objective condition is to bring the educational system to a proper condition, the subjective condition is already connected with the environment: coach, environment and so on. We have to find the talents facing difficulties in terms of subjective conditions, and in consultation with them, their families, see with what individual program we can help that diligence to be further manifested. By the way, let me say that this will not only apply to the field of sports, but also to absolutely all fields, because one’s talent can be expressed in sports, another’s in art, and the third one’s in science. I believe that this is also a very important strategic plan, and we must implement this plan.

In fact, I spoke for quite a long time, but I also spoke for a long time to show how excited we are, and personally I, about your victory. I want to thank you and also your family, your parents for this great victory that you brought to the Republic of Armenia.”

Issues related to the further development of chess in Armenia were discussed at the meeting. The interlocutors exchanged thoughts on the possibilities of holding international chess tournaments in our country, the state programs for the promotion of the field. The Prime Minister noted that the government will continue to support the development of chess and sports in general by all means.