The four-time Armenian chess champion, member of the women's team Maria Gevorgyan has joined the struggle to keep the rear strong from the first day of the war unleashed by Azerbaijan in Artsakh. In addition to being actively involved in various volunteer activities and information warfare, the grandmaster came up with a chess initiative by holding the "Playing Chess for Artsakh" tournament in the Freedom Square.

Maria played chess with dozens of participants for about 6 hours at a time. Raising money for Artsakh in advance was the only condition to compete with the multiple champion of Armenia. Maria tells that she had the idea of holding a charity tournament from the very first days of the war, and she found the determination to realize it when she saw the photo of soldiers playing chess on the front line.

“It was difficult to organize a tournament in the current conditions, but when I saw the picture of soldiers playing chess on the front line on the Internet, I finally decided to get down to work. That's how I managed to organize the tournament with the support of my friends, I played for 6 hours non-stop․ I haven't played chess since September 27, maybe it was because of the longing for the game that I endured that long.” says Maria, emphasizing that there were no winners or losers in the tournament, since the desire of the participants to support the army is already a victory.

During the "Playing Chess for Artsakh" charity tournament, 200,000 drams were collected, which will be equally divided and transferred to "Hayastan All-Armenian” fund and the "Military Insurance” fund.