23.08.2017

Ilyumzhinov: "Aronian's success is well deserved and Karyakin has proved his strength once again"

The success of the Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian at the speed and blitz representative tournament is well deserved, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov believes.

"Aronian is an outstanding chess player of our time and his victory is not surprising. And Sergey Karyakin’s victory at the blitz tournament proved that he has not accidentally become the blitz chess World Champion on December 30 last year. Thus, Sergei proved his strength again," FIDE President noted.

"In general, this performance of the top three winners -- Aronian, Karjakin and Nakamura is the expected result of such a large tournament," Ilyumzhinov added.

Let us remind you that Levon Aronian scored 24.5 points taking first position. The second was the Russian Sergey Karyakin (21.5), the third one was American Hikaru Nakamura (21.5). The tournament was held from on August 14 - 18 in St. Louis.