Chess Grandmaster Melik Khachiyan

My Biography

By GM Melik Khachiyan

I was born in the former Soviet Union. At the age of eight, I started playing chess and progressed rapidly. By the age of ten, I won the Baku Junior Championship and achieved a First Category in Chess. This ranking corresponds roughly to the USCF 2000 (Expert) rating. (Baku, by the way, is the motherland of Garry Kasparov and Teimur Radjabov.) Two years later, at twelve, I became a Soviet Candidate Master, which corresponds to USCF 2200+. The road to becoming a master took me another six years. Eventually in 2005, I became a Grandmaster.

Along my way, I was lucky to meet a lot of famous and outstanding people. First of all, I would like to mention my teacher, the 9th World Champion, Tigran Petrosian, whose chess school I attended in 1983~1984. Also, such great coaches as A.S. Nikitin and A.I. Shakarov, whose chess lessons were unforgettable and made a huge impact on my chess career. Both coaches are most known for their coaching and analytical work with the 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov.

It so happened that, at some point I had a break in my chess tournament play. Thus, I unexpectedly began coaching, very early in my chess career. Practically from the time when I became a Soviet chess master in 1990, I started my coaching activities. Here are some of the highlights of my chess coaching career so far

• Professional Coach since 1990;
• Worked for Armenian Chess Federation since 1900 through departure in 2001;
• Trained L.Aronian, 1990~1997. On 1995 I got the title on Honored Coach of Armenia for L.Aronian's successes;
• Raised many talented kids in Armenia, who eventually became known on chess world. Among them, GM A.Pashikian, GM T.Petrosian, GM T.Gharamian. All of them had reach NM level under my trainings;
• Helped as well to WGM E.Danielian and WIM N.Aghinian for some period of time;
• From 2001 to current I have been coaching in US;
• Most honorable students are: GM S.Zierk (World Champion U18 in 2010), GM K.Troff (helped for 2 years to reach strong 2300 level, winning Silver and Gold in World Youth Championships, IM C.Hilby, WIM S.Liao;
• Current students: IM A.Wang and WIM A.Eswaran;
• Teaching on chess.com since 2009;
• Head Coach of US Women Olympic Team since 2010, and Team Captain since 2017;
• Invited to become a counselor for TRG in 2018.

While coaching, I continued playing in different tournaments, as I believe that a coach should also play in order not to lose the practical strength. In 1995, I achieved the International Master Title. In 1996, I played in the World Chess Olympiad in Erevan, Armenia. In 1997, I played on the Armenian National Team in the World Championship that took home the bronze medal. In 1995, I was awarded the title of Honored Chess Coach of Armenian Republic. Also, in the same year, I was awarded the title of Honored Chess Coach of Moldova Republic.

Come to my school for lessons, and you will not regret it.

Grand Master Melik Khachiyan, rev Feb 2021
Special thanks to Mike Zaloznyy for the translating and Joshua E. Gutman, the original webmaster.

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