Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian is an Armenian-American Grandmaster widely regarded as one of the most creative and intuitive chess players of his generation. Born on October 6, 1982, in Yerevan, Armenia, he earned the GM title at 17 and quickly rose to become one of the world's elite players. His peak rating of 2830, achieved in March 2014, stands as the fourth highest in history.

Aronian represented Armenia with distinction for over two decades, helping his country win three consecutive Chess Olympiad gold medals in 2006, 2008, and 2012. He won the FIDE World Cup twice (2005 and 2017), claimed the World Blitz Championship in 2010, and became the Chess960 World Champion in both 2006 and 2007. In December 2021, he made the significant decision to switch federations and begin representing the United States, citing frustration with what he described as indifference toward Armenian chess. He now lives in St. Louis, Missouri, home of the Saint Louis Chess Club.

Known for possessing what commentators call rare intuition in sharp positions, Aronian plays an ultra-aggressive style that has produced some of the most memorable games in modern chess. He primarily opens with 1.d4 as White and is an expert practitioner of the Marshall Attack with Black. He has competed at the highest level against contemporaries like Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Ding Liren, and remains a dangerous opponent for any player in the world.

In 2025, Aronian showed he is far from finished as a competitive force. He won the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam events in both Las Vegas and Cape Town, collecting $450,000 in prize money, and took first place at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz. As of April 2026, he holds a FIDE classical rating of 2724 and is ranked No. 21 in the world. Outside of chess, he is a devoted jazz and classical music enthusiast and lives with his wife Anita and their daughter Zabelle.