The opening ceremony of the Chess Giants was held on Sunday 8^th June 2008 in the “Chess House” in Yerevan, Armenia. The Prime Minister of the Republic, the Hon. Tigran Sargsyan welcomed the participants and reminded the press and audience of the heritage that Armenia has with ex World Champion Tigran Petrosian and more recently as winners of the Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy.

FIDE Commercial Director and Global Chess CEO Geoffrey Borg thanked the organisers for their initiative and in the press conference, he outlined also the plans that FIDE had for the next couple of years for women chess and other world class events and how Global Chess was assisting in the development of chess.

The participants of the "Chess Giants" tournament laid flowers on the Tigran Petrosian Memorial near the Chess House named after the 9th World Champion in Yerevan.

The participants in the rapid tournament are (in alphabetical order) Grandmasters GMs Adams, Akopian, Aronian, Bu Xiangzhi, Gelfand, Leko, Morozevich, and Sargissian. Two games will be played daily between each player and play starts at 6.00pm (Armenian time +4 GMT). Total prize fund is $262,000 with first place winning $70,000.

All games can be followed live at: www.chessgiants.am