President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan is leaving for a working visit to Germany on Friday to participate in the opening ceremony of the Candidates Tournament 2018, which will be held in Berlin on March 10-28.

The Armenian leader will make a symbolic first move as an honorary guest of the tournament on Saturday.

Eight strongest chess players will participate in the Berlin tournament: World Cup winner Levon Aronyan (Armenia), participant of the final of the Ding Liren (China),  Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan),  Alexander Grischuk,  Sergey Karjakin, Vladimir Kramnik (all Russia), Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana (U.S.).

The tournament of applicants will take place on a circular system - in two circles, 14 rounds. The winner will get the right to fight with world champion Magnus Carlsen on November 9 - 28 this year in London.

The tournament will be contested as a double round-robin with each player playing 14 games. The winner of this 8-player candidates tournament will be the challenger of Magnus Carlsen at the World Chess Championship 2018.