Mariam Mkrtchyan dedicates her victory in World Championship to soldiers guarding Armenian border

Mariam Mkrtchyan, winner of the world champion title in the under-18 chess championship which ended in Romania, dedicates the victory to the soldiers guarding the Armenian border, the ESCS website reports.

The reigning Armenian champion won all games of the Under-18 World Championship, scoring 11 points.

"When I was going to the world championship, I didn't think about the result at all. I didn't think whether I could become champion or not... All I could think about was to do my best and score as many points as I could. I was already thinking about the next match, and I happened to win round after round. I could feel that the attitude toward me had changed; they were paying more attention to my games and seeing how I played, because since 1957 nobody had won 11 games in a row in the championship. So the result shocked me, too.

I'm very happy and proud that I could overcome all the difficulties and win the Under-18 World Championship. Overall, all the matches were interesting and with each victory I was getting closer to the championship. The competition was really tough, my opponents were more experienced and also competed for prizes, so it was difficult. I used to have experience competing in youth tournaments, but in recent years it was always a bit difficult and not able to take a prize.

We followed what was going on in our home country. The very next day I was to compete against a representative of Azerbaijan. "Psychologically it was very difficult to prepare for the game, so that tension and thoughts do not interfere with me right in front of the board," said Mariam Mkrtchyan.

Starting Oct. 11, Mariam Mkrtchyan will participate in the World Under-20 individual championship in Italy.

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