Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian was confirmed to participate in the Grand Chess Tour this year after Russia's Vladimir Kramnik was forced to withdraw from the sports event due to scheduling conflicts.

The Grand Chess Tour consists of five tournaments, including three in rapid chess, and according to the rules, each of the nine participants must play in four competitions.

Besides Aronian, the nine main participants of this season are Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Sergey Karjakin, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So.

These nine players will all compete in the 2017 Sinquefield Cup (July 31-August 12) and the 2017 London Classic (November 29-December 12) where they will be joined by one wildcard in each tournament, Chess.com reports.

Aronian claimed the third spot at the 79th edition of the prestigious Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands on January 29.