Levon Aronian to face Hou Yifan at FIDE World Chess Cup 2017

Armenian GMs Hrant Melkumyan and Robert Hovhannisyan dropped out the 1/64 final of the of FIDE World Chess Cup 2017, taking place in Tbilisi Georgia. As the National Olympic Committee reported, the Armenians players lost in the rapid chess games 0.5:1.5 respectively to Boris Grachov (Russia) and Maxim Rodstein (Israel). 

Gm Levon Aronain remains the sole representative of Armenia to go through to 1/32 final of FIDE World Chess Cup. Aronian will face today Hou Yifan of China in the next round. 

To note, the FIDE World Cup is a 128-player knockout with a $1,280,000 prize fund that qualifies two players for the Candidates tournament next year which decides who will be Magnus Carlsen’s next challenger.