Levon Aronian
| Levon Aronian | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Full name | Levon Aronian |
| Country |  Armenia |
| Born | 6 October 1982 Yerevan, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2783 (No. 4 in the September 2010 FIDE World Rankings) |
| Peak rating | 2786 (November 2009) |
Levon Aronian (Armenian: Լևոն Արոնյան; born 6 October 1982 in Yerevan) is an Armenian chess Grandmaster. On the September 2010 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2783, making him number four in the world and Armenia's number one.[1]
Aronian won the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2009, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012. He was also the 2009 World Rapid Chess Champion.[2]
Career
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.
In 2002 he won the Armenian Chess Championship.[3]
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 2004 he progressed to the third round of the 2004 FIDE World Championship before being knocked out by Pavel Smirnov.
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.[4] In the Russian Team Championship, he scored +5 =3 -0 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.
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.[5]
In January 2007 Aronian shared first place at the category 19 Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee along with Veselin Topalov and Radjabov. In May 2007 he defeated World Champion Vladimir Kramnik 4-2 in a rapid chess match.[6]
His 2005 World Cup victory qualified him for the Candidates Tournament of the World Chess Championship 2007, being played in 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 3.5-2.5. This qualified him for the final stage of the championship, which was played in Mexico. There, he scored only 6 points out of 14, finishing seventh out of eight players.
In January 2008 he won the prestigious Corus chess tournament jointly with Magnus Carlsen, scoring 8/13.[7]
In March 2008 he won the Melody Amber blindfold/rapid tournament held in Nice, France, 2½ points ahead of the other nearest competitors.[8] 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.
Aronian won the Karen Asrian Memorial rapid chess tournament in Yerevan in June 2008. He finished 8.5/14 ahead of Peter Leko.
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 4 wins 1 draw and 1 loss in the 2nd Bilbao Masters.[9]
Aronian played in the FIDE Grand Prix 2008-2009, and won the Grand Prix with one tournament to go, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012.
On August 3, 2009 Aronian won the World Rapid Chess Championship.[2]
In November 2009, Aronian competed in the Mikhail Tal Memorial, at the time the strongest tournament in history (average ELO = 2763). He finished fourth with 5.0/9, and in the final round memorably demolished world champion Viswanathan Anand with the Black pieces in just 25 moves.[10]
In December 2009, he was awarded the title of "Honoured Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia".[11]
In August 2010, Aronian attempted to defend the World Rapid Chess title, but lost to eventual champion American Gata Kamsky.[12]
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.
On October 19, 2010, Aronian unofficially broke the 2800 rating barrier with a victory over Vassily Ivanchuk in the European Club Cup. Finishing the tournament at 2802, Aronian become only the sixth player to cross the 2800 rating mark, joining Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, and Magnus Carlsen.
Olympiad career
Aronian played for Armenia in the Chess Olympiads of 1996, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.[13] 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.[14]
Chess960
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 4.5-3.5. He won the Finet Chess960 open tournament again in 2005 which earned him a rematch with Svidler in 2006, and won the match this time 5-3 to become Chess960 World Champion.
In 2007 he successfully defended his title of Chess960 World Champion by beating Viswanathan Anand. He lost the title in 2009 to Hikaru Nakamura.
Personal life
As of the end of 2009, his girlfriend is Australian Woman International Master Arianne Caoili.[15][16]
Notable games
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Aronian, as Black, defeats GM Ivan Sokolov (2676) in 19 moves, using all of 10½ minutes on his clock to do so [1]: I. Sokolov-Aronian, Chess Olympiad, Turin 2006 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.e3; 10.Be5) Qf6! (10...Rxb8?? 11.Qa4+ +-) 11.Bg3 Nxc3 12.a3 Bf5! 13.Qd2 Ba5 14.b4? Ne4 15.Qc1 Rc8!! 16.Ra2?! Rxc5 17.Qa1 (see diagram at right) Qc6! The threat of back-rank mate is crushing. 18.Qe5+ Kd8 19.Qxh8+ Kd7 0-1 If 20.e3, Rc1+ 21.Ke2 Bg4+! and 22...Qc4# (based on analysis by A.J. Goldsby)
References
- ^ Aronian's FIDE ranking
- ^ a b Rapid World Chess Championship - Aronian wins final in smooth style
- ^ Oganessian, Gaguik. "All Champions of Armenia". Armchess.am. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
- ^ The Week in Chess
- ^ FIDE Top lists records, Aronian
- ^ Drama in Yerevan – Aronian wins Rapid match 4:2, Chessbase, 7-May-2007
- ^ Wijk R13: Aronian, Carlsen win Wijk aan Zee 2008, Chessbase, 27.01.2008
- ^ Melody Amber: Aronian wins with 2½ point lead, Chessbase, 27.03.2008
- ^ Crowther, Mark (2009-09-12). "TWIC: 2nd Bilbao Masters 2009". London Chess Centre. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
- ^ "Kramnik: I am counting on regaining the world title". Chessbase. 2009-11-17. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
- ^ "High Titles of Olympic Champions". Armchess. 2009-12-19. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
- ^ Chess Classic Mainz – Kamsky wins with 10.0/11 points
- ^ Bartelski, Wojciech. "Men's Chess Olympiads: Levon Aronian". OlimpBase. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
- ^ "2010 Chess Olympiad Statistical overview". ChessBase. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
- ^ 2008 Pearl Spring Chess Tournament, Nanjing, China, Chessbase, December 21, 2008
- ^ Prospect Magazine: The lion and the tiger, 18 Nov 2009