“Armenia, with a population of three million, has won the last two men's world team chess championships, beating opponents including Russia, China, and the US. What is their secret?” BBS correspondent David Edmonds wonders. He arrived in Armenia to investigate the Armenian chess phenomena.

Edmonds’ adventures started in Zvartnots airport in Yerevan. “I speak not a word of Armenian, and the first man I met in Armenia spoke not a word of English. He was the driver picking me up from the airport. &‘David,’ I said, pointing at myself. &‘Tigran,’ he said, shaking my hand, &‘Tigran Petrosyan.’ This seems a weird coincidence. In 1963, his namesake, Tigran Petrosyan, had defeated Mikhail Botvinnik to take the world chess title.”

The journalist touches upon the development of chess in Soviet Union. He considers that “Soviets used chess to demonstrate the superiority of communism over capitalism, and had created a highly efficient chess factory, churning out prodigies like sausages.”

Speaking with people the reporter could hear the following: “In America everyone can remember where they were when Kennedy was shot. Here in Armenia, everyone of a certain age can recall the exact moment Petrosyan became world champion.”

Edmonds considers that Armenians are obsessed with chess. "Later I meet the president of the Armenian Chess Federation. The interview had taken months to arrange. That may seem odd until you realise that in his spare time, he is also president of the country. The president now plans to introduce chess into the school curriculum. “We don't want people to know Armenia just for the earthquake and the Genocide,” President Serzh Sargsyan said. “We would rather it was famous for its chess,” the journalist writes.

Finally Edmonds met with Armenian Grandmaster Tigran Petrosyan: “He is no relation of Armenia's chess legend, but when Petrosyan won the world title, says the younger Tigran, his father had a dream that if he ever had a son he would call him Tigran.”

“A spectator tells me that Armenia's number-one player, Levon Aronian, is their equivalent of David Beckham,” the author concludes.