Your trusted source

 Vladimir Kramnik announced he has signed a contract for a six-game match in classical chess against Levon Aronian. The match is scheduled on April 21-29. Though a ‘friendly’ match, it is also a serious one, aimed to help both prepare for the upcoming Candidates tournament. This is also the first time in history in which two players rated 2800 will play a classical match.

The first game is scheduled for April 21st, 2012, with a rest day scheduled after rounds two and four, and the last game will be played on April 28th. In the event of a draw that ends with less than three hours of play, the players will play a rapid game at 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment that same day for the spectators. Note that this will not count toward the score of course.

The sponsor is Russian precious stones giant ICG with another Western partner in the same field.