August 10, 2009 - 17:00 AMT
Levon Aronyan and Vladimir Hakobyan ended the 1st round of Grand-Prix tournament in a draw
In the 1st round of Grand Prix fifth series tournament, which started in Jermuk on August 9, Armenian chess players Levon Aronyan and Vladimir Hakobyan agreed to a draw with their rivals Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) and Evgeni Alekseev (Russia).

Effective games during the first round were between pairs Ernesto Inarkiev - Peter Leko and Ivan Chaparinov-Dmitry Yakovenko, with Leko and Chaparinov topping the list.

Thus, after the first round, Hakobyan and Aronyan share the 3rd-12th positions of tournament table.

During the 2nd round, Hakobyan and Aronyan will play with white figures against Alekseev and Inarkiev respectively.

Games are scheduled on August 9-13, 15-18 and 20-23. Rest days: August 14 and 19

First round games: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) - Levon Aronyan - 1.5-1.5
Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia) - Peter Leko (Hungary) - 0:1
Evgeny Alekseev (Russia) - Vladimir Hakobyan - 1.5-1.5
Ivan Chaparinov (Bulgaria) - Dmitry Yakovenko (Russia) 1:0
Gata Kamsky (US) - Etienne Bacrot (France) - 1.5-1.5
Rustam Kasymdjinov (Khazakhstan) - Sergey Karyakin (Ukraine) -1.5-1.5
Boris Gelfand (Israel) - Pavel Elianov (Ukraine) - 1.5-1.5

Tournament position after 1st round: Leko, Chaparinov - 1; Hakobyan, Aronyan, Ivanchuk, Alekseev, Bacrot, Karyakin, Kamsky, Gelfand, Elianov, Kasymzhanov - 0.5, Inarkiev, Yakovenko.