Levon Aronian Begins Candidates Matches by Agreeing to a Draw

Armenian GM Levon Aronian kicked off the 2011 Candidates Matches, part of the World Chess Championship cycle, by agreeing to a draw. The chess tournament launched on May 5 in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, with the participation of 8 chess players. In the quarter final, Aronian is playing against Russia’s Alexander Grischuk. Aronian was playing white and had the advantage with a knight quite quickly; however, in the last game, Grischuk succeeded evening out the positions and on move 70, settled for a draw.

Note, the grandmasters will play 4 games and in case of a draw, there will be a tie-breaker.

The next match is to take place today with Aronian playing black.

The three other games in yesterday’s match were also played: Gata Kamsky (US) and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) and Boris Gelfand (Israel), and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) and Vladimir Kramnik (Russia).