KAREN ASRIAN

Asbury Park Press, NJ
June 11 2008

KAREN ASRIAN, an Armenian chess grandmaster who was the ex-Soviet
nation’s reigning champion and helped it win 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, 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.