YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS. The leader of the Armenian men’s chess team Levon Aronian is the only chess player from Armenia, who was authorized to participate in the chess tournament of the World Mind Games, which will be held on December 11-17 in Beijing.

As reports “Armenpress”, almost all the strongest chess players of the world have been accredited to participate in this major sport event.

Other participants include Russians Alexander Grischuk (2,789), Ian Nepomniachtchi (2,710), Azerbaijani Shakriyar Mamedyanov (2,756), French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2,768), as well as Chinese Wang Yue (2,713), who last year won the rapid games' stage (20 minutes).

Players from 12 countries took part in the previous edition of the Beijing World Mind Games, which began in 2011, where China finished in first place with nine gold, seven silver and five bronze medals.

The World Mind Games are an international multi-sport event featuring mind sports. Five sports are included on the program: Bridge, chess, draughts, go, and xiangqi.

The World Mind Games were initiated by SportAccord, the umbrella organisation for international sports federations and organisers of sports events, in order to bring these sports closer to a worldwide public.

The event is staged annually. So far three editions have been held in December in Beijing, China. Beijing will also host the next edition in 2014.