Business chess, also known as Armenian chess, is a team-based chess variant invented in 1992 by Dr. Grachya Ovakimyan in Moscow, described by its creator as a sports business game intended to make chess more entertaining and spectacular for participants and spectators alike. Rather than one player against another, two teams compete, each recommended to field five members who discuss and decide moves collectively through open deliberation rather than individual calculation. The format's central innovation is that a team can pursue several parallel branches, or alternate versions of the same game, simultaneously across multiple boards, tracked and weighted using rating, or importance, indicators. Teams may abandon a losing branch through a mechanic called Selection, or redistribute resources between branches through a mechanic called Passing. Ovakimyan designed the format to showcase group thinking, position evaluation and strategic decision-making as a team sport, giving it appeal to spectators interested either in chess strategy itself or in team dynamics and leadership.
Facts
Sport
Game Type (category) Classification
Player Count Sources
1. Business chess (Wikipedia)
Lead, invention date
invented in 1992 by Dr. Grachya Ovakimyan of Moscow
Lead, team format
two teams, each with five members recommended
Lead, game type
a team chess variant designed as a sports business game
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