The 2018 Candidates Tournament kicks off in Berlin on 10 March, with the winner getting a chance to fight for the World Championship title against Magnus Carlsen.

Armenian GM Levon Aronian is also taking part in the eight-player double round-robin chess tournament, with several European and Russian bookmakers predicting his win in the tournament, the Armenian National Olympic Committee told Panorama.am.

The other participants of the tournament are Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Wesley So (U.S.), Fabiano Caruana (U.S.), Ding Liren (China), Alexander Grischuk (Russia) and Sergey Karjakin (Russia).

Aronian will face Ding Liren in Round 1 scheduled for March 10.