The elite players of the chess world, including Armenia's Levon Aronian, have moved to the German cities of Karlsruhe and Baden Baden for the Grenke Chess Classic from 20-29 April, Forstpost reports.

The event is to be played in a single round robin format with a time control of 100 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then another 15 minutes to the end of the game with a 30-second increment from move one. The first five rounds will be played at the Schwarzwaldhalle in Karlsruhe after which the tournament will move to Kulturhaus LA8 in Baden-Baden.

the field in Grenke features a fine blend of experience, youth and promise. At the top of the field is the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen, who is followed by his erstwhile world title challenger and the tournament’s defending champion, Fabiano Caruana; the mighty Madras Tiger, Viswanathan Anand; the French number one, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; and the Armenian superstar, Aronian.

There is also the 14-year-old IM Vincent Keymar, who has made it to the premier leg of the event by winning the Grenke Open in the previous edition. Leaving aside the fact that he is only fourteen, Keymar’s win at the open is no mean feat even for the standards of a seasoned Grandmaster. The German lad had finished ahead of world-class players like Richard Rapport, Wang Hao and Anton Korobov.

And then there is the top German GM Georg Meier. Although the local star is not quite up there with the top guns of the event in terms of rating, he is surely capable of giving any opponent a run for his money. Last year, he was a heartbeat away from bringing down Carlsen, but had to settle for a draw after missing some niceties in a critical variation.

Aronian won the 2017 edition of Grenke Chess Classic after he managed to snatch 5.5 points out of possible 7.0.