Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian lost the game to Yan Nepomniachtchi at the opening game of the first leg of the 2019 FIDE Grand Prix series opened on Thursday in Moscow. The game ended on the 72nd move with Aronian playing with black.

The second game between the two will take place on May 18. The Moscow Grand Prix is a knock-out (or single-elimination) event. It’s a format where the loser of each match is immediately eliminated from the tournament, and the winner will play another winner in the next round, until the final match, whose hero becomes the Grand Prix Champion.

The 2019 FIDE Grand Prix series consists of four tournaments, with 16 players each. A total of 22 players will compete, and the top two finishers in the overall standings will qualify for the 2020 Candidates' Tournament. The winner of that tournament will be the new challenger of Magnus Carlsen in a title match scheduled for November 2020.