Armenia's Aronian still the sole leader after FIDE Grand Prix R5 draw

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian drew with Black against GM Ding Liren of China in round 5 of the FIDE Grand Prix in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

"We're slowly getting accustomed to each other," Aronian said, adding that the day before the break is the "most important" since "you don't want to go to the rest day being upset."

With a total of 3.5 points, Aronian is still the sole leader of the tournament, closely followed by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Hikaru Nakamura (U.S.), Liren, Peter Svidler (Russia), Pentala Harikrishna (India) and Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia) with 3.0 points each.

The FIDE Grand Prix 2017 is a series of four chess tournaments that form part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2018. The top two finishers will qualify for the 2018 Candidates Tournament.

Aronian who won the World Chess Cup in September, as well as Liren, who reached the finals, have already qualified for the Candidates Tournament.