Hi !
I am an Opera Singer, specialized in spinto tenor repertoire. I used to play chess professionally till 15 years old (peak fide rating was 2297 by January 2001). In 2000 I won the Armenian Chess Championship U14 and the bronze medal of World Chess Olympiad U16 in Artek (Crimea).
Frankly, the opera has a lot in common with chess. It is very demanding in sense of self control, focus, strategic planning, imagination, sustainable training, creativity etc. I am not mentioning the tens of complete opera roles you need to learn and memorize, just like the numerous chess debuts
My best regards to all the players on chess.com. I hope we will meet both in chess and opera worlds.
Sincerely yours,
Hayk Vardanyan