Jermuk is hosting Karen Asrian Memorial from October 4 to 14 with participation of 64 chess players from Armenia, Russia and Georgia.

Armenia’s Tigran Petrosyan tops the standings, defeating Vardan Melkonyan in the first round. Petrosian will rival Nikita Matinyan (Russia) in the second round.

Russia’s Sergey Volkov is the second, followed by Georgia’s Konstantine Shanava.

The prize fund of Karen Asrian Memorial makes USD 15,000.

Karen Asrian is a winner of 2006 Chess Olympiad. He was awarded with Movses Khorenatsi medal. He had had 2634 points in FIDE ratings, securing the fourth place in the list of Armenia’s best chess players. In 2008 Asrian died of stroke. Chess Giants tournament suspended on the occasion of the chess player’s death was renamed to Karen Asrian Memorial.