Levon Aronian is a Chess Super Grandmaster in the US, making him one of the best American Chess players. Originally from Armenia, Aronian’s current classical FIDE rating is 2765. For more information on FIDE ratings, see the step-by-step guide on how to get a FIDE rating.
Last Updated: May 8th, 2022
Profiles
Biography
Levon came into prominence after his performance at World Under-12 Chess championship in 1994. He won the title with amazing 8/9. He continued his growth at the youth level as he clinched the World Junior Chess Championship in 2002, with a score line of 10/13.
Levon’s first major senior level title was Armenian Chess Championship win, in 2002.
Achievements
Levon clinched the Finet Chess 960 open tournament held at Mainz in 2003. This victory allowed Levon to qualify for a showdown with Peter Svilder, the then Chess 960 World Champion. However, Svilder defeated him by a score line 4.5 to 3.5.Levon again clinched the Finet Chess 960 tournament, in 2005.He got a chance to challenge Svilder again.
In 2006, Levon defeated Svilder to win the Chess960 World championship by a score line 5 to 3. He retained his Chess960 World championship after defeating Viswanathan Anand in 2007.
Levon reached the third round at the 2004 FIDE World championship. He went out of the tournament after losing to Pavel Smirnov. His performances in various tournaments helped him to attain the fifth rank.
In 2005, Levon won the Karabakh tournament. He tied with five other players at the top in the Gibtele.com tournament held at Gibraltar. Levon attained an amazing 2850 ELO performance rating at the Russian team championship, in 2005.
Levon had an amazing run at the Chess World cup held at Russia. He defeated Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov in the last round to clinch the world cup. He remained undefeated in the seven rounds of the tournament.
He progressed in a big way and won the prestigious Linares Chess Tournament in 2006.He had .5 lead to leave behind Topalov and Radjabov to the second spot. He finished joint first at the Tal Memorial tournament in the same year.
Levon reached his highest ranking of third for the first time in, July 2006. However, Levon had to share the first place with Veselin Topalov and Radjabov at the Corus chess tournament, which falls under category 19.
In 2007, Levon beat Vladimir Kramnik, then World champion in one off rapid chess match. As the winner of chess world cup, he got the entry to the Candidates tournament, which determines the candidate for the 2007 FIDE World Chess Championship. Levon defeated Magnus Carlsen after overcoming him in the blitz match 2-0, since both they tied in rapid as well as classical formats. Levon beat Shirov by a score line 3.5 to 2.5 in the final to qualify for the last stage. However, he finished in seventh place.
Levon finished as the joint winner of Corus Chess tournament in 2008. He clinched the Melody Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament with a 2.5 points lead in the same year. He also clinched Karen Asrian Memorial rapid chess tournament in that year.
In 2009, he retained his Melody Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament. Levon won the FIDE Grand Prix of 2008/2009. Levon became the World rapid chess champion in 2009.
Did you enjoy reading about Levon Aronian? If you did, you might be interesting in reading other player profiles such as Hikaru Nakamura, Emanuel Lasker, and Paul Morphy.