President Serzh Sargsyan to leave for Berlin on working visit

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan will pay a working visit to the Federal Republic of Germany to attend the solemn opening ceremony of the FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament, to be in Berlin, Germany, on 10–28 March, 2018. As an honorary guest of the tournament, the President of Armenia will make the symbolic first move of the game on March 10.

The Berlin Tournament will be attended by eight of the world’s top Grandmasters: World Cup tournament winner Levon Aronian (Armenia), WC finalist Ding Liren (China), the top two finishers in the World Chess Grand Prix Series - Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) and Alexander Grischuk (Russia), two chess players who qualified by their 2017 FIDE rating - Fabiano Caruana (USA) and Wesley So (USA), Sergey Karjakin (Russia) who automatically qualified for the Candidates Tournament by playing in the 2016 World Chess Championship Match and 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia).

The Candidates Tournament will be held as a double round-robin over 14 games. The winner will be entitled to challenge incumbent World Champion Magnus Carlsen this November 9-28 in London. The Berlin Tournament is organized by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and its commercial partner Agon.