The opening ceremony of the unofficial chess match between Levon Aronyan and Vladimir Kramnik took place on Friday at the Opera and Ballet Theatre. It was obviously interesting for chess fans, yet many were not even able to be present during the opening ceremony with the participation of Armenian Prime Minister and President of the Chess Federation of Armenia Serge Sargsyan, President of FIDE Kirsan Iliuzhinov, President of Nagorno-Karabagh Arkadi Ghukasyan, and others.
Before the opening ceremony, there was a short film presentation about Armenian chess and the history of the chess competitors. Then Serge Sargsyan made a speech, mentioning that although the match is unofficial, the duel of the two greats will please chess fans. Kirsan Iliuzhinov also made a speech and apologized for speaking in Russian.
“I have not learned Armenian yet, but I think that it is time to learn because Armenian chess is winning all the gold medals.”
Iliuzhinov recalled that world champion Vladimir Kramnik was declared world Olympiad champion of the Russian chess team in Yerevan in 1996. The champions will play 6 rounds and each will have 25 minutes, plus 10 seconds for each move. Aronyan lost to Kramnik in the first round when he gave up on the 45th move with the blacks. However, in the second round Aronyan was able to balance the score. He beat Kramnik with whites. Kramnik gave up on the 76th move. So, the score was 1-1 after the second round. The 2nd round took place at the State Opera and Ballet Theatre on Saturday.