Chess: Aronian seals victory at the World Chess Cup first round

Panorama, Armenia

Sept 2 2017

Sport 10:17 04/09/2017Armenia

Armenian GM Levon Aronian started with a victory at the 2017 FIDE World Chess Cup, taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia. Aronian defeated Daniel Cowdery (SAR). Other representatives of Armenia Hrant Melkumyan and Robert Hovhannisyan played draw against Boris Grachov (Russia) and Maxim Rothstein (Israel) respectively.

Rounds are two games each, plus a tiebreak if necessary. As the National Olympic Committee of Armenia reports, the seconds games of first round are slated for Monday.

To note, the FIDE World Cup is a 128-player knockout with a $1,280,000 prize fund that qualifies two players for the Candidates tournament next year which decides who will be Magnus Carlsen’s next challenger.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS