Tigran Levoni Petrosian (; born 17 September 1984) is an
Armenian chess player who holds the title of
grandmaster, which
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...
awarded him in 2004. A two-time national champion, he competed in two
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...
s, winning team gold in 2008 and 2012.
Early years
Tigran L. Petrosian was born on 17 September 1984. His first name was deliberately chosen by his father to match the name of
Tigran V. Petrosian (no relation), the first Armenian to become World Champion. When the late Tigran won the world title, Tigran's father dreamt that if he ever had a son he would call him Tigran. The former world champion died a month before Tigran L. Petrosian was born.
Petrosian learned chess at the age of five. He received coaching from
Gagik Sargissian and
Melikset Khachiyan before entering a chess academy in 2002, where he was occasionally instructed by GM
Arsen Yegiazarian and IM
Ashot Nadanian.
Chess career

Petrosian achieved his grandmaster title by scoring norms at the
under 18 World Championship in 2002, the Batumi Open in 2003, and the
Aeroflot Open in Moscow in 2004. In the same year he tied for 2nd-3rd with
Zhao Jun in the
World Junior Chess Championship
The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
The idea was the brainchild of William Rits ...
in
Kochi
Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...
, India. In 2005, he tied for first in
Tehran
Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...
,
Kish
Kish may refer to:
Businesses and organisations
* KISH, a radio station in Guam
* Kish Air, an Iranian airline
* Korean International School in Hanoi, Vietnam
People
* Kish (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Kish, a former ...
and
Lausanne
Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
; in 2006 tied for first in
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
and
Dubai
Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...
; in 2008 tied for first in
Wheeling, Illinois and
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...
. In the same year he won a team gold medal (together with
Levon Aronian,
Vladimir Akopian,
Gabriel Sargissian and
Artashes Minasian
Artashes Minasian (also Transliteration, transliterated as ''Minasyan''; ; born 21 January 1967) is an Armenian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He tied for first in the 1991 USSR Chess Championship and is a six-time Armenian Chess Champi ...
) at the
38th Chess Olympiad in
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
.
In 2011, Petrosian tied for 1st–3rd with
Marat Dzhumaev and
Anton Filippov in the
Georgy Agzamov
Georgy Tadzhikhanovich Agzamov (September 6, 1954, Tashkent – August 27, 1986, Sevastopol) was a Soviet chess Grandmaster, the first from Central Asia. He became an International Master in 1982 and was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1984. ...
Memorial in
Tashkent
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
and won the event on tie-break. In the same year he won the first Armenian
Chess960 Championship, tied for 2nd–4th with
Abhijeet Gupta and
Magesh Panchanathan in the third Orissa International GM Open Chess Tournament and came first in the 31st Villa de
Benasque Open.
In January 2012, Petrosian won the
Armenian Chess Championship and in February 2012 came first in the Armenian
Rapid
Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to:
Hydrological features
* Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow
* Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States
* Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City
Sport ...
Championship.
In January 2013, Petrosian won the Armenian Chess Championship for the second time. He also won clear first prize in International "Grand Europe Open Albena-2013" in Bulgaria.
In 2017 Petrosian finished clear first in the 45th Annual World Open at
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
and seventh in the
World Blitz championship
In February 2018, Petrosian competed in the
Aeroflot Open. He finished fifth out of ninety-two, scoring 6/9 (+3–0=6).
Petrosian plays on the
Internet Chess Club
The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC had over 30,000 subscribing members in 2005. It was the first Internet chess server and was the largest p ...
(ICC) under the pseudonym "Tigrano".
Cheating disqualification
On 1 October 2020,
Wesley So, the eighth highest-rated grandmaster in the world at the time, accused Petrosian of cheating in his semi-final and final games during the online
Chess.com 2020
PRO Chess League. Petrosian responded to So with a long, insulting message on the Chess.com forum, including the comments, "You are a biggest looser i ever seen in my life ! You was doing PIPI in your pampers when i was beating players much more stronger then you!". Chess.com subsequently determined that Petrosian had violated fair play regulations; consequently, his team the Armenia Eagles, was
disqualified and So's Saint Louis Arch Bishops were crowned champions. Chess.com and the PRO Chess League both issued lifetime bans to Petrosian.
Awards
In December 2009, Petrosian was awarded the title of "Honoured Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia".
References
External links
*
Tigran L Petrosiangames at 365Chess.com
Grandmaster Games Database - Tigran L. Petrosian*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrosian, Tigran L.
1984 births
Living people
Armenian chess players
Chess Grandmasters
Chess Olympiad competitors
Cheating in chess