Levon Grigori Aronian (; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess grandmaster who has represented the United States since 2021. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster in 2000, at the age of 17. He is a former blitz world champion. His highest classical ranking was No. 2 position in the March 2014 FIDE world chess rankings with a rating of 2830, becoming the fourth highest-rated player in history.
Aronian won the FIDE World Cup in 2005 and 2017. He led the Armenian national team to the gold medals in the Chess Olympiads of 2006 (Turin), 2008 (Dresden) and 2012 (Istanbul) 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 world champion in Chess960 in 2006 and 2007 and in blitz chess in 2010.
Aronian has been the leading Armenian chess player since the early 2000s. His popularity in Armenia has led to him being called a celebrity and a hero. He was named the best sportsman of Armenia in 2005 and was awarded the title of Honoured Master of Sport of Armenia in 2009. In 2012, he was awarded the Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots. In 2016, CNN called Aronian the "David Beckham of chess".
In late February 2021, Aronian announced his decision to transfer his federation from Armenia to the United States, citing the lack of government support as his primary reason. The transfer was completed in December 2021 and he has since represented the United States.
Early life and education Aronian was born on 6 October 1982 in Yerevan, Armenia (then part of the Soviet Union), to Seda Avagyan, an Armenian mining engineer, and Grigory Leontievich Aronov, a Russian Jewish physicist from the Vitebsk Region, Belarus. He has said, "I feel much more Armenian than Jewish, although there are sides to me which are more Jewish culturally, involving the arts and music." He was taught to play chess by his sister, Lilit, at the age of nine. His second coach was 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.
One of Aronian's long-term coaches has been Ashot Nadanian, whom Aronian called "absolutely irreplaceable" in 2011.
Aronian holds a diploma from the Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture.
Career Early years: 2001–2005 In 2001, Aronian scored 7/9 in the Cappelle-la-Grande Open, half a point behind the joint winners Einar Gausel and Vladimir Chuchelov. A few months later, he won the Young Masters tournament at Lausanne.
In 2002, he won the Armenian Chess Championship. In the same year, he became World Junior Champion, scoring 10/13 and finishing ahead of Surya Ganguly, Artyom Timofeev, Luke McShane, Bu Xiangzhi, Pentala Harikrishna, and others.
In 2003, he participated in the first-class four-player round-robin at the Hoogeveen chess tournament where he scored 3/6, behind Judit Polgar, tied with Ivan Sokolov, and ahead of Anatoly Karpov.
Aronian made his debut at the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2004. In the first round, he beat the thirteen-year-old Magnus Carlsen, who also made his debut at the tournament. In the third round he lost to Pavel Smirnov.
2005–2006 By 2005, Aronian had entered the top ten by FIDE Elo rating. In 2005, he was part of a five-way tie for first place at the Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar with Zahar Efimenko, Kiril Georgiev, Alexei Shirov and Emil Sutovsky.
During the 12th Russian Team Championship, held in April 2005 in Sochi, Aronian played on board three for Tomsk-400, scoring 7½/9 with a performance rating of around 2850. Tomsk-400 won the championship, and this result also qualified them for the 2005 European Chess Club Cup, which the team also won. During that event, held in Saint-Vincent, Italy, Aronian played on board one and scored 4.5/7.
In October 2005 Aronian also won the Karabakh 2005 International "A" Tournament. In December he beat Ruslan Ponomariov in the final round to win the World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
In March 2006, Aronian won the annual Linares chess tournament, half a point ahead of Teimour Radjabov and then-World Chess Champion Veselin Topalov. In November 2006, he tied for first in the Tal Memorial chess competition. The April–July 2006 FIDE rating list ranked Aronian the third highest rated player in the world. Armenia won its first ever Chess Olympiad at the 37th Chess Olympiad.
2007–2008 In January 2007, Aronian shared first place at the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee along with Veselin Topalov and Radjabov. All three scored 8.5/13. In May 2007, he defeated World Champion Vladimir Kramnik 4–2 in a rapid chess match.Drama in Yerevan – Aronian wins Rapid match 4:2, Chessbase, 7 May 2007
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 Magnus Carlsen, and they tied 3–3 in the initial six games, then 2–2 in rapid chess, and finally Aronian won 2–0 in 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 6/14, finishing seventh out of eight players.
In January 2008, he won the Corus chess tournament jointly with Magnus Carlsen, scoring 8/13. In March 2008, he won the Melody Amber Blindfold/Rapid tournament held in Nice, France, 2½ points ahead of the nearest competitors.Melody Amber: Aronian wins with 2½ point lead, Chessbase, 27 March 2008 Apart from his first place win in the overall tournament, he also took sole first place in the rapid section of the tournament 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. At the Second FIDE Grand Prix in Sochi, Aronian defeated Alexander Grischuk in the final and finished at 8½/13 and a performance rating of 2816. Aronian won the 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden with the Armenia national chess team, winning gold for the second time in a row.
2009–2010 Aronian won the Fourth FIDE Grand Prix in April 2009 with a score of 8½/13, one point ahead of Peter Leko and fellow Armenian Vladimir Akopian. After winning the Bilbao Chess Masters Final in September 2009, his FIDE rating was just four points behind World Champion Viswanathan Anand. In November 2009, he competed in the Mikhail Tal Memorial and finished in fourth place. In December 2009, Aronian was awarded the title of "Honoured Master of Sport of Armenia".
Aronian won the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012.
In August 2010, he unsuccessfully defended the World Rapid Chess title, losing to eventual champion Gata Kamsky.
In November 2010, he shared first at the category XXI Tal Memorial. He also won the 2010 World Blitz Chess Championship in Moscow.
2011–2012 In January 2011, he tied for 3rd in the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament. In March 2011, he won the final Melody Amber Blindfold/Rapid tournament for the third time. In November 2011, Aronian played in the Tal Memorial in Moscow in a round robin with ten players. He tied for first with Magnus Carlsen, with both scoring 5½/9.
In January 2012, Aronian won the Tata Steel Chess Tournament with 9/13 and a performance rating of 2891. Following his successful performance, which included wins against Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri, Aronian achieved the then third highest ever Fide rating at 2824.
The Bilbao Chess Masters Final 2012 took place in October, in which Aronian came in third place. In December 2012, Aronian competed in the London Chess Classic, coming in sixth place with one win, 5 draws and 2 losses. Later that month, he won the SportAccord World Mind Games, a blindfold tournament, in Beijing.
2013–2014 In the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in January, Aronian finished second with five wins, one loss and seven draws, in second place behind Carlsen. Aronian finished fourth in the 2013 Candidates Tournament. In the 2013 Alekhine Memorial tournament, Aronian finished first, scoring three wins, one loss and five draws.
Aronian participated in the 2014 Zurich Chess Challenge and tied for second place, along with Fabiano Caruana. He played in the 2014 Candidates Tournament, and finished tied second to last.
2015–2016 In the 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament, he scored one win, three losses and nine draws, for 5½/13 points. In February 2015, he played in the Grenke Chess Classic in Baden-Baden Germany, scoring 3½/7 points. Later that month, he played in the Zurich Chess Challenge 2015, winning the Blitz tournament with 4/5 points. He scored 4/10 points in the Classical tournament, and scored 3/5 points in the Rapid tournament. He finished 4th overall in the tournament.
Aronian participated in the Grand Chess Tour, a series of three super tournaments (Norway Chess, Sinquefield Cup, and London Chess Classic) in which players try to accumulate the most Grand Chess Tour points through the three tournaments. In Norway Chess, he scored 3/9 (9th place in the tournament). On 1 September 2015, he won the 3rd Sinquefield Cup, with a +3 score, scoring wins over Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Wesley So.Kavalek, Lubomir Aronian's Chess Comeback Huffington Post. 6 September 2015
He played in the Chess World Cup 2015, a knockout chess tournament played in Baku, Azerbaijan. This tournament was one of the last remaining qualifiers for the Chess Candidates Tournament 2016 (winner and runner-up will qualify), which determined the challenger to Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2016. He was eliminated in Round 2 by Grandmaster Alexander Areschenko. However, he was selected as organizer's nominee to play in the 2016 Candidates Tournament by Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan.
In October 2015, he participated in the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in Berlin, Germany. In the Rapid Championship, he placed 43rd overall, scoring 8½/15 points. In the Blitz, he placed 11th overall, scoring 13½/21 points. Aronian won the 2015 European Chess Club Cup with Team Siberia Novosibirsk, which featured Kramnik, Grischuk, Li Chao, Wang Yue, Korobov, Kokarev, and Bocharov.
In December 2015, Aronian played in the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour, the London Chess Classic. In this tournament, he scored 5/9, with one victory against Veselin Topalov. Overall, he scored 22 Grand Tour Points out of 39 to earn himself a spot in the top 3 of the overall Tour standings, securing an invitation in the next Grand Chess Tour.
2017–2018 In April 2017, Aronian won the Grenke Chess Classic in Baden-Baden, Germany. In the 7-round tournament, he scored 5½ points, 1½ points ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.
On 16 June 2017, Aronian won the fifth edition of the Norway Chess Tournament (with a PR of 2918, and a full point ahead of nearest rivals), beating Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin. In August 2017, Aronian placed joint-fourth out of ten players in the fifth edition of the Sinquefield Cup with a score of 5/9. On 18 August 2017, Aronian won the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz with a score of 24½/36.