President Serzh Sargsyan, who is also President of the Chess Federation of Armenia, on Thursday attended the official opening of the Candidates Tournament for the 2016 World Chess Championship.

Also, Sargsyan played a game of chess with President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov of the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

This unplanned blitz chess match ended with the Armenian President’s “victory.”

In Friday’s Round 1 of this tournament which is held in Moscow, Grandmaster (GM) Levon Aronian, who plays first board for the three-time World Chess Olympiad champions and the former World Team Chess champions Armenia, faces GM Anish Giri (Netherlands).

The winner of the Candidates Tournament, which has about a €420-thousand prize fund, will be the challenger for the 2016 World Chess Championship against the reining champion, GM Magnus Carlsen (Norway), from November 11 to 30, in New York.