Armenia's Aronian down two notches to fourth spot on FIDE ratingJanuary 8, 2018 - 11:57 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian's ranking has declined by two notches on FIDE's chess rating, dropping to the fourth spot from the second last month. FIDE unveiled the new ratings recently, with Magnus Carlsen of Norway still leading the list of strongest chess players of the world. Among the top 100 are also included three more Armenians - Vladimir Akopian on the 77th, Gabriel Sargissian in the 67th , as well as Hrant Melkumyan in the 97th positions. Aronian won the Stavanger-hosted Norway Chess tournament in June 2017, the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament two months later, and snatched the World Chess Cup victory in Georgia in late September. Also, the Armenian grandmaster won the fourth leg of the FIDE World Cup in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Top stories Armenian gymnast, Olympic bronze medalist Artur Davtyan has reached the finals of the World Cup. Gor Manvelyan has denied reports alleging that he has expressed a desire to one day play for the French national team. Roma midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan is not considering FC Spartak Moscow as his next haven, according to fresh reports. 10 Armenian lifters will compete in the 2021 World Championships scheduled to be held from 7 to 17 December in Tashkent. Partner news | Armenia to participate in key EU meeting for the first time ever National Assembly speaker Alen Simonyan has said that Armenia will for the first time participate in the Conference. U.S. reacts to Russia’s criticism of upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting Matthew Miller has weighed in on Russia’s criticism of an upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting. Lavrov sees ‘collapse’ of Russia’s ties with Armenia Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has underscored heightened tensions between Russia and Armenia. Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine |