| Levon Aronian | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Levon Aronian |
| Country | Armenia |
| Born | 6 October 1982 Yerevan, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2805 (No. 2 in the January 2012 FIDE World Rankings) |
| Peak rating | 2808 (May 2011) |
Levon Grigor Aronian (Armenian: Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the January 2012 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2805, making him number two in the world and Armenia's number one.[1] He won the Chess World Cup 2005.
Aronian led the Armenian national team to the Gold medals in the 2006 (Turin) and 2008 (Dresden) Chess Olympics[2] and at the World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo 2011. He won the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012. He was also the World Chess960 Champion in 2006 and 2007, the World Rapid Chess Champion in 2009, and is the current World Blitz Chess Champion.[3]
Aronian was declared the best sportsman of Armenia in 2005[4] and was awarded the title of "Honoured Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia" in 2009.
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Aronian was born on 6 October 1982 in Yerevan, Armenia, to Seda Sarkisovna, a mining engineer and Grigory Leontievich, a physicist. He was taught to play chess by his sister Lilit at the age of nine. His first coach was the Grandmaster Melikset Khachiyan. An early sign of his ability came when he won the 1994 World Youth Chess Championship (under-12) in Szeged with 8/9, ahead of future luminaries Étienne Bacrot, Ruslan Ponomariov, Francisco Vallejo Pons, and Alexander Grischuk.[5]
Aronian holds a diploma from the Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture.[6]
In 2002 he won the Armenian Chess Championship.[7] In the same year he became World Junior Champion, scoring 10/13 and finishing ahead of Surya Ganguly, Artyom Timofeev, Luke McShane, Bu Xiangzhi, Pendyala Harikrishna, and others.[8]
In 2004 he progressed to the third round of the 2004 FIDE World Championship before being knocked out by Pavel Smirnov.[9]
Levon Aronian became part of the international elite in 2005, shooting up to fifth place in the world. In 2005 he was part of a five-way tie for first place at the Gibtele.com Masters in Gibraltar with Zahar Efimenko, Kiril Georgiev, Alexei Shirov, and Emil Sutovsky. He was the sole winner of the Karabakh 2005 International "A" Tournament.[10] In the Russian Team Championship, he scored +5 −0 =3 with an Elo performance rating of around 2850. In December he beat Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the final round to win the World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. After a draw in two regular games, Aronian won both Rapid games to win the event and emerge undefeated in seven rounds.[11]
In March 2006 he took sole first place at the annual Linares chess tournament, half a point ahead of Teimour Radjabov and FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov. In 2006 he also tied for first in the Tal Memorial. The April–July 2006 FIDE rating list ranked Aronian the number three player in the world.[12]
In January 2007 Aronian shared first place at the category 19 Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee along with Veselin Topalov and Radjabov.[13] In May 2007 he defeated World Champion Vladimir Kramnik 4–2 in a Rapid chess match.[14]
His 2005 World Cup victory qualified him for the Candidates Tournament of the World Chess Championship 2007, scheduled for May–June 2007. In this tournament he played GM Magnus Carlsen, and they tied 3–3 in the initial six games, then 2–2 in Rapid chess, and finally Aronian won 2–0 at Blitz chess. In the finals, he defeated Shirov 3½–2½. This qualified him for the final stage of the championship, which was played in Mexico. There, he scored only six points out of 14, finishing seventh out of eight players.[15]
In January 2008 he won the prestigious Corus chess tournament jointly with Magnus Carlsen, scoring 8/13.[16] In March 2008 he won the Melody Amber Blindfold/Rapid tournament held in Nice, France, 2½ points ahead of the other nearest competitors.[17] Apart from his first place win in the overall tournament, he also took sole first place in the Rapid section of the tournament (winning by a margin of 1½ points) and shared first place in the Blindfold section with three other chess grandmasters: Kramnik, Morozevich, and Topalov. In June 2008, Aronian won the Karen Asrian Memorial Rapid chess tournament in Yerevan. He finished 8½/14 ahead of Peter Leko.[18]
In March 2009 he won the 18th Melody Amber Blindfold/Rapid tournament held in Nice, France for the second time, scoring a combined 14 points in 22 games. In the same year he took clear first place with four wins, one draw, and one loss in the second Bilbao Masters.[19] On August 3, 2009 Aronian won the World Rapid Chess Championship.[3] In November 2009 he competed in the Mikhail Tal Memorial, at the time the strongest tournament in history (in terms of average Elo, 2763). He finished fourth with 5/9, and in the final round memorably demolished World Champion Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces in just 25 moves.[20] In December 2009, he was awarded the title of "Honoured Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia".[21]
Aronian played in the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, and won the Grand Prix with one tournament to go, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012.
In August 2010, he attempted to defend the World Rapid Chess title, but lost to eventual champion American Gata Kamsky.[22] In September 2010, Aronian played in the preliminary stage of the Bilbao Grand Slam in Shanghai against Vladimir Kramnik, Alexei Shirov, and Wang Hao, but could not qualify for the final tournament after losing to Kramnik in an Armageddon game after they drew the tiebreaker match. His next tournament was the Chess Olympiad, where he was Armenia's first board, leading them to a seventh place finish, winning the silver medal on board one, and raising his rating to a career-high 2794.[23]
In November 2010, he finished shared first at the category XXI Tal Memorial.[24] Following this tournament, he competed in the World Blitz Championship in Moscow, where he scored 24.5/38 to win the title ahead of Teimour Radjabov and defending champion Magnus Carlsen; Aronian clinched the title with a round to spare.[25]
In January 2011, he tied for 3rd–4th with Magnus Carlsen in the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee.[26]
In March 2011 in Monaco, he won the 20th and final Melody Amber Blindfold/Rapid tournament for the third time, scoring a combined 15/5 points in 22 games.[27]
Over his career, Aronian has a 5–1 record against Anand in classical chess. His high ranking and the fact that he was playing in the 2011 world championship Candidates tournament suggested that Aronian was a hot favorite for winning the title from Anand. However, Aronian suffered a setback by losing to Alexander Grischuk 2½–1½ in a quarter final Rapid play tiebreaker following a 2–2 split in their regulation classical matches.[28]
In November 2011 Aronian played in the category 22 Tal Memorial in Moscow in a round robin with ten players. He won two games, against Ivanchuk and Svidler, and drew the rest. He tied for first with Magnus Carlsen, each scoring 8.5/11, but finished behind on tiebreak since he played four Black games while Carlsen played five.[29]
Aronian played for Armenia in the Chess Olympiads of 1996, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010.[30] He took team bronze medal in 2004 and team gold medal in 2006 and 2008. In the 2010 Chess Olympiad he won the silver medal for his individual performance on board one.[31] He was a member of the gold-medal winning Armenian team at the World Team Chess Championship in 2011.[32]
Aronian broke the 2800 rating barrier in the November 2010 FIDE world ranking with a rating of 2801.[33] He is only the sixth player to cross the 2800 rating mark, joining Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, and Magnus Carlsen.
Standing on each top 100 FIDE list:[34]
| Rating list | Rating | World ranking |
|---|---|---|
| January 2003 | 2610 | 85 |
| April 2003 | 2606 | 91 |
| July 2003 | 2649 | 44 |
| October 2003 | 2649 | 47 |
| January 2004 | 2648 | 45 |
| April 2004 | 2645 | 51 |
| July 2004 | 2671 | 32 |
| October 2004 | 2675 | 29 |
| January 2005 | 2684 | 21 |
| April 2005 | 2693 | 21 |
| July 2005 | 2724 | 10 |
| October 2005 | 2724 | 10 |
| January 2006 | 2752 | 5 |
| April 2006 | 2756 | 3 |
| July 2006 | 2761 | 3 |
| October 2006 | 2741 | 7 |
| January 2007 | 2744 | 7 |
| April 2007 | 2759 | 5 |
| July 2007 | 2750 | 8 |
| October 2007 | 2741 | 9 |
| January 2008 | 2739 | 10 |
| April 2008 | 2763 | 6 |
| July 2008 | 2737 | 12 |
| October 2008 | 2757 | 7 |
| January 2009 | 2750 | 11 |
| April 2009 | 2754 | 6 |
| July 2009 | 2768 | 4 |
| September 2009 | 2773 | 3 |
| November 2009 | 2786 | 4 |
| January 2010 | 2781 | 5 |
| March 2010 | 2782 | 5 |
| May 2010 | 2783 | 5 |
| July 2010 | 2783 | 5 |
| September 2010 | 2783 | 4 |
| November 2010 | 2801 | 3 |
| January 2011 | 2805 | 3 |
| March 2011 | 2808 | 3 |
| May 2011 | 2808 | 3 |
| July 2011 | 2805 | 3 |
| September 2011 | 2807 | 3 |
| November 2011 | 2802 | 3 |
| January 2012 | 2805 | 2 |
In 2003 Aronian won the Finet Chess960 open at Mainz; this qualified him for a match against Chess960 World Champion Peter Svidler at Mainz the following year, a match which he lost 4½–3½. He won the Finet Chess960 open tournament again in 2005[35] which earned him a rematch with Svidler in 2006, and won the match this time 5–3 to become Chess960 World Champion.[36]
In 2007 he successfully defended his title of Chess960 World Champion by beating Viswanathan Anand.[37] He lost the title in 2009 to Hikaru Nakamura.[38]
Aronian's handle on the Internet Chess Club (ICC) is "L-Aronian".[39]
As of the end of 2011, his girlfriend is Australian Woman International Master Arianne Caoili.[40][41]
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Aronian, as Black, defeats GM Ivan Sokolov (2676) in 19 moves, using 10½ minutes on his clock:[42]
Sokolov–Aronian, Turin 2006 Chess Olympiad
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 c5!? 7.dxc5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Ne4 10.Bxb8!?
10...Qf6!
11.Bg3 Nxc3 12.a3 Bf5! 13.Qd2 Ba5 14.b4? Ne4 15.Qc1 Rc8!! 16.Ra2?! Rxc5 17.Qa1 (see diagram) Qc6!
18.Qe5+ Kd8 19.Qxh8+ Kd7 0-1
| Achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Viswanathan Anand |
World Rapid Chess Champion 2009 |
Succeeded by Gata Kamsky |
| Preceded by Magnus Carlsen |
World Blitz Chess Champion 2010 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |