Armenia’s Levon Aronian gears up for London Chess ClassicDecember 11, 2018 - 15:02 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - London Chess Classic, the final leg of the 2018 Grand Chess Tour, will be held from December 11 to 17 in the British capital, with Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian also set to feature. Alongside Aronian are Hikaru Nakamura (U.S), Fabiano Caruana (U.S.) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) comprising the "final four" at the London Chess Classic. Four stages of the Grand Chess Tour 2018 have already been completed: Rapid / blitz tournaments in Leuven, Paris and Saint Louis, and the classical Sinquefield Cup, also in Saint Louis. This year's edition uses a new format, according to which the four players compete in a semi-final, then the two winners will then go to the final, while the losers play in a match for third place. In the semi-finals, the leader of the Grand Chess Tour meets fourth place in the standings and second place plays third. The pairings after the drawing of lots are: Caruana vs Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave vs Aronian. The London Chess Classic prizes (in order of place): 1. $120,000 2. $80,000 3. $60,000 4. $40,000 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 | 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 Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. |