Aronian finishes third, Martirosyan 13th in Total Chess opening blitz tournament

Levon Aronian finished third and Haik Martirosyan placed 13th in the preliminary blitz tournament at the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot, which concluded on November 10 in Budapest. The event featured 24 players.

Representing the United States, Aronian scored 6 points out of 9, recording four wins, four draws and one defeat. He beat Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi in the final round to secure a top-three finish.

Magnus Carlsen won the tournament with 7 points. The Norwegian remained unbeaten and defeated Martirosyan with the black pieces in the final round. France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took second place with 6.5 points.

Martirosyan finished with 4.5 points, registering four wins, one draw and four defeats. The Armenian grandmaster beat Abhimanyu Mishra, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Jorden van Foreest and Vaishali Rameshbabu. His only draw came against Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the opening round.

Haik Martirosyan’s full results

Martirosyan placed 13th in the final standings on tiebreaks.

The nine-round tournament followed the Swiss system, with a time control of three minutes plus a two-second increment per move. The final rankings will break ties in the group stage, determine semifinal pairings in the knockout brackets and give the higher-ranked player the choice of colour in the first blitz game of each knockout match.

The group stage begins on November 11. Martirosyan will compete in Group C alongside Carlsen, Anish Giri, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Abhimanyu Mishra and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Players will contest a double round-robin in the Fast Classic format, with a time control of 45 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move. A win is worth three points and a draw one.