Armenia excels at chess. Its top player now has a shot at becoming world champion. BBC journalist and documentary-maker, David Edmonds, visited Armenia earlier this year to attend a FIDE international chess championship and discover why this tiny country is now a giant at the game—read his article here. He was accompanied by Stuart Franklin, a Magnum photographer since 1985, who took the iconic images of tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square.
Grandmaster Levon Aronian: the popularity of the game in Armenia has made him into the country's David Beckham
- Spectators watch the tournament at the Yerevan chess club
Tournament spectators watch outside scoreboards
Three students at the Jermuk chess school
Aronian being interviewed by David Edmonds and BBC reporter, Gabriel Gatehouse
The chessboard floor of the Jermuk school
One of the games younger players
A chessboard "red carpet" for the contestants
11-year-old Manuel Petrosian at the Jermuk chess school
Another chess pupil practices
Tournament spectators
Chess players in Circle Park
David Edmonds at the Jermuk chess club
Rustam Kasimdzanov and Boris Gelfand participating in a Grand Prix
Aronian, number 3 chess player in the world playing in a Grand Prix tournament
Following the proceedings of the Grand Prix tournament in Jermuk at the Yerevan chess club
Young chess enthusiasts learning from championship games online
Outside scoreboards for the chess Grand Prix
Helmut Sternberg
This is a wonderfully touching series of
photographs, creating an Armenia totally
different from the country of crime, bribary,
and corruption that w
we are shown most of the
time.