"I know that all of Armenia expects a repetition of Tigran Petrosian’s triumph from Levon. I am confident that Aronian will be able to show his skill in Candidates Tournament," Ilyumzhinov added.
At the moment, there are three known participants of Candidates Tournament: Russian Sergey Karyakin, Aronian and Chinese Din Lichen. The winner of the competition will hold the title match with the World Champion Norwegian Magnus Carlsen in the second half of 2018.
According to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Armenia's hopes for winning the world chess crown are linked to the World Cup winner Levon Aronian.
"Armenia has been waiting too long for great chess victories. Aronian is an outstanding chess player, an experienced tournament fighter; he is good at training before matches. In recent years, he made sure he was ready for the title match, and he is one of the leading figures in the world chess movement," FIDE President said.
