Levon Aronian’s First Game in Moscow Chess Tournament Ends in Draw

The 2011 Mikhail Tal Memorial chess tournament kicked off on Nov. 16 with an unprecedented line-up of participants.

Among the 10 Grossmeisters (Grandmasters) is Armenian national Levon Aronian (pictured), whose first game ended in a draw. Aronian was playing white against Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen.

Games that also ended in a draw yesterday included Viswanathan Anand (India) vs. Sergey Karjakin (Russia) and Hikaru Nakamura (US) vs. Boris Gelfand (Israel).

There were two good games in the first round: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) playing white beat Peter Svidler (Russia), while Jan Nepomnyashchiy playing black beat Vladimir Kramnik (both representing Russia).

The Mikhail Tal Memorial is played in Moscow each year to honor the memory of former World Champion Mikhail Tal who died in 1992.