GRANDMASTER, ARMENIAN CHESS CHAMPION ASRIAN DIES AT 28

PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)
June 9 2008
Austria

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – Karen Asrian, an Armenian chess grandmaster
who was the ex-Soviet nation’s reigning champion and won the 2006
Chess Olympiad, died Monday after suddenly losing consciousness,
the Armenian Chess Federation said. He was 28.

Asrian was ranked 92nd by the World Chess Federation, or FIDE.

Apparently feeling ill, Asrian pulled his car into a court yard in
the Armenian capital, Yerevan, early Monday and lost consciousness,
the Armenian Chess Federation said. An ambulance crew pronounced him
dead at the scene, possibly of a heart attack, it said.

A moment of silence was held in his memory before the opening of
a speed-chess tournament in Yerevan on Monday after his death was
announced by Armenian player Smbat Lputian.