Love for chess is in Armenians' blood, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said while opening Chess in Schools international conference in Yerevan on Friday.
The conference involves delegations from 30 countries, with the opening ceremony attended by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and high-ranking guests.
"Recently I was in Mexico. They showed me their national school curricula and said that they were going to follow Armenia's example and to make chess a compulsory subject in schools. The same is true
for Paraguay, Mongolia and Thailand. And it was Armenia who initiated this program," Ilyumzhinov said.
He noted that for most Armenians chess is life. "Armenia is the only nation that managed to win three Olympiads within just six years. Even big nations were unable to show such a result," the FIDE
President said.