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The first round of the Aeroflot Open chess tournament in Moscow was called off on Tuesday evening after a bomb threat at hotel Cosmos, the venue of the competition. The first round will now be played on Wednesday. local sources reported.

The opening round on Tuesday commenced at around 3pm local time, but about 45 minutes into it --- the games had to be stopped --- as the hotel received a bomb threat call.

The threat --- which proved to be a false alarm --- left many of the players worried.

To remind, 15 Armenian players, including six grand masters have arrived in Moscow to take part in the tournament.

The festival comprises of three open tournaments (A, B and C) made up according to the rating of the participants and are 9-round Swiss – tournaments. Naturally, the greatest interest is aroused by A tournament, requiring from a participant a rating above 2550 and in which usually take part a number of extra class players. In addition to the Open Tournaments, a Blitz Tournament will be held within the festival. As the source reports, 5 Armenian chess players are set to play in A tournament - Hayk Martirosyan, Tigran Petrosyan, Manuel Petrosyan, Aram Hakobyan and Shant Sargsyan among them.