Levon Aronian's next rival is Boris Gelfand

YEREVAN, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS. On March 25 Levon Aronian will compete with Boris Gelfand in the 9th round of the Candidates Tournament, which is being held in London. As reports "Armenpress" the first play of the Grand Masters ended in Aronian's victory. After the 8th round of the tournament Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen share the first place. Each of them has scored 5,5 points. Vladimir Kramnik has 4,5 points. Alexander Grischuk, who has 4 points in his active, occupies the fourth position. Both Peter Svidler and Boris Gelfand have 3,5 points. Azerbaijan's Teimour Radjabov has only three points and Vasily Ivanchuk occupies the final position with 2,5 points.

Levon Aronian commented on his play with Magnus Carlsen and in particular stated: "It seemed to me that Magnus will not run risks and eventually the play ended in a draw."

The FIDE Candidates Tournament launches in London. The world's eight strongest chess players will compete with each other from March 15 to April 1. This is the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The winner of the Candidates Tournament will earn the right to a match for the World Championship against the incumbent World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

Levon Aronian - Levon was born on 6 October, 1982. On the May 2012 FIDE list he had an Elo rating of 2908, making him number three in the world. Aronian won the Chess World Cup 2005. He led the Armenian national team to the Gold medals in the 2006 (Turin), 2008 (Dresden) and 2012 (Istanbul) Chess Olympics and at the World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo 2011. He won the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012. He was also World Chess960 Champion in 2006 and 2007, World Rapid Chess Champion in 2009, and World Blitz Chess Champion in 2010. Aronian was declared the best sportsman of Armenia in 2005 and was awarded the title of "Honoured Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia" in 2009.

Boris Gelfand - Boris Gelfand was born on 24 June, 1968. Gelfand is an Israeli chess Grandmaster. He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and faced World Champion Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012. Although the match was level at 6–6, Gelfand lost in the rapid tie break games.