Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian won the 2nd game against Mikhail Markov of Kazakhstan in the 1st round of FIDE World Cup in Tromsø, Norway.

Sergei Movsesian and Hrant Melkumian again played in a draw with Jon Ludvig Hammer (Norway) and Julio Granda Zuniga (Peru) respectively.

Vladimir Akopian dropped out of the competition after suffering another defeat by Nguyen Ngoc Trung Son (Vietnam).

The FIDE World Cup is a knockout, starting with 128 players. Two games are played between each pair of players. The rate of play is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. The winner and the runner-up of the World Cup 2013 will qualify for the Candidates Tournament of the next World Championship cycle.