Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian will face Ding Liren of China in round 1 of the Candidates Tournament, which will be held in Berlin, Germany on March 10–28.

Other pairings for the first phase of the round-robin tournament are: Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) vs Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Sergey Karjakin (Russia) vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Fabiano Caruana (U.S.) vs Wesley So (U.S.).

The winner of this 8-player event will be the challenger of Magnus Carlsen at the World Chess Championship 2018 on November 9-28 in London, Britain.