I started playing chess when I was 6 years old. I began to love chess by playing with a chess computer and with my grandpa. Then I decided to go to chess lessons. My first chess trainer was Arnold Mikayelyan (the MSKH school chess teacher).
After some time training with him, I played my first-ever tournament, where my goal was to achieve the 4th rank. Obviously, I failed because it was my first time, but after four more attempts, I finally earned the long-awaited 4th rank.
Finally, after some years, I achieved the highest 1st rank. After that, I had to change my coach because I needed to get stronger, so I went to the Chess Academy of Armenia. There, I started to take chess much more seriously, and everything became much harder because I was on the edge of real competitive chess.
When I finally got my international FIDE rating, I started to play in tournaments not only in Armenia. For example, my first international tournament was in Batumi at the 2022 World Youth Chess Championship (under 10 years old).
Since then, I have taken part in many international tournaments, which not only helped me improve my chess rating but also helped me make many friends from other countries. This also helped me improve my English.
Now I am a Candidate Master with an Elo rating of 2207. I am very happy that I didn’t quit chess and was able to reach this level, and I will never give it up.
Արեն Մնացականյան 