KING TAKES HEART COFFEE SHOP A HUB FOR CHESS AFICIONADOS.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Some call it a sport, while others argue that it's just a game. But for the dozens of players who gather nightly in the corner of a dim downtown Glendale coffee shop, chess is a way of life.

On Friday and Saturday nights - focused around a few foldable plastic boards and furrow-browed players at Java City - crowds of more than 50 people gather to play and watch some of California's best chess.

On weeknights, the congregation diminishes to about 15 or 20 dedicated players, but the intensity remains high.

``I sold my business and now I spend my time playing and watching this great, beautiful game,'' said Henrik Abrahamian, former owner of the Great White Hut and now a dedicated chess enthusiast and player.

``What attracts us to chess is that it's based on intelligence, creativity and skill - it's a combination of art, science and sport,'' said Roger Aramayo, 29, who says he sometimes spends more than 40 hours a week playing chess at Java City.

The games go on in relative quiet - like tennis matches - all eyes on the board with heads bobbing back and forth as players make their moves quickly, under the pressure of an electronic timer beside the board.

When a rook is snatched by a pawn, spectators exhale a collective gasp.

And, intermittently, a frustrated player will knock over his own king and storm out the door for a cigarette and some air.

``You can't always tell, but these games are highly competitive,'' Abrahamian said.

The majority of players at Java City are of Armenian descent, who take great pride in Armenia's strength in chess.

Local heroes include Varuzhan Akobian, a 19-year-old Glendale man who came in second at the U.S. Chess Championship earlier this month, and Tigran Petrosian, the first Armenian to win a world championship.

Wednesday night, conversation tended toward Garry Kasparov, the top- ranked chess player in the world, who is most often referred to as a Russian.

``Kasparov is not Russian, he is Armenian,'' said Gagik Azatyan through a translator. ``His mother was Armenian and that makes him Armenian.''

For Armenians, Azatyan said, chess is much more than a game.

``Every school in Armenia has rooms for chess competitions - I've been playing since I was a kid and my 11-year-old son plays now,'' Azatyan said.

``Chess was a national type of game in the former Soviet Union - you can compare it to baseball in America,'' said Armen Arakelov, a financial analyst from Glendale who spends much of his free time at Java City either playing or watching.

With more than 50,000 of its 200,000 residents of Armenian ancestry, Glendale is now a hub for the game, Arakelov said.

``This is the center for chess in California,'' Arakelov said. ``There are a number of masters and grandmasters that play here.''

Darabet Kassakhian, an environmental analyst who lives in Glendale, met his wife, Loussik, over a chessboard, and has ties to some of the game's most storied players.

`'She was the only girl who ever beat me at chess, so I married her,'' Kassakhian said. ``When she beat me, I would get very upset, so now she won't play me anymore.''

Playing since he was 10 years old, Kassakhian was on the Harvard University chess team in the 1960s while he was working on his Ph.D. and ascended to the No. 2 rating in the Boston area.

Kassakhian played against chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, who became United States champion at the age of 14, and was good friends with Armenia's first champion, Petrosian, who founded a chess school in Armenia in the 1960s.

The Kassakhians have brought their love for chess to Glendale, like so many other Armenians.

Loussik Kassakhian ran the Clark Magnet High School Chess Club for three years, and their son, Ardashes Kassakhian - director of the Armenian National Committee Western Region - can sometimes be found in Java City.

``I just play for fun,'' Ardashes Kassakhian said. ``I don't understand these guys that can see five moves ahead.''

Glendale is also home to the All American Association Chess Club, an Armenian-run school for all levels of chess players.

Nshan Keshishian founded the school in 1991, and now there are more than 200 students enrolled, who practice every day at the First Lutheran Church.

``Chess in itself is education,'' Keshishian said.

And if Keshishian had it his way, American schools would follow Armenia's lead: ``I wish every school could teach the game.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1) Java City, a Glendale coffee shop, is a hotbed of chess action. On Friday and Saturday nights crowds of more than 50 people gather to play and watch some of California's best chess.

(2) Roger Aramayo makes his move as Armen Arakelov looks on during one of the many chess matches that take place on any given night at Java City, a coffee house in Glendale that has become a hub for lovers of the centuries-old game of skill.

(3) Boghos Boghosian ponders his next move as Ymar Solamo looks over his shoulder during a chess game.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(4) Armen Arakelov reaches for a knight as he plays a chess match at Java City. Many Armenians brought their love of the game with them when they immigrated to America.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer