Aronian to compete for qualification in the Candidate's Tournament
The World Chess Federation (FIDE) has announced the list of participants to compete in the Grand Prix cycle to gain qualification for the Candidate's Tournament. Armenian GM Levon Aronian is in the list with 14 other leading players, World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Sergey Karjakin, Pyotr Svidler, Yevgeny Tomashevsky (Russia), Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So (U.S.), Viswanathan Anand (India), Anish Giri (the Nitherlands) among others in the list.
To note, the series of the tournament will be held under the auspices of FIDE, with the organisation rights belonging to Agon, its commercial partner, that will present another 9 players to participate in the tournament.
The format of Grand Prix includes 24 players taking part in the cycle. Four events will take place with 18 players in competing in each nine-round Swiss tournament. The events will to take place on Feb. 17 to 28 in Sharjah, May 11 to 22 in Moscow, July 5 to 16 in Geneva and in Nov. 15-26 in Palma Del Mallorca.