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.