The draw for the European Individual Men’s Chess Championship1 round was held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Armenian grandmaster Vladimir Akopian will face off against Andreas Hagen (Denmark), Gabriel Sargissian will rival Hovhannes Gabuzyan, while Armenian chess champion Tigran Petrosian will face Burak Firat (Turkey).

Other board pairings have been announced as follows: Hrant Melkumyan-Gil Popilsky (Israel), Arman Pashikyan- Christian Braun (Germany), Zaven Andreasyan- Georgi Filev (Bulgaria), Robert Hovhannesyan- Marco Codenotti (Italy), Samvel Ter-Sahakyan- Alexander Chudinovskikh (Russia), Vladimir Poghosian- Papp Gabor.

The championship will start March 20, 5 pm, European time. The winner will get euro 14 thous.

The event will be organized in 11-round Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Laws of Chess.

The rate of play will be 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.