Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian is an Armenian-American Grandmaster who has won pretty much everything there is to win in chess but the FIDE World Championship. This includes the World Championship in Blitz (2010), Rapid (2009) and Chess960 (2006, 2007). He played first board on the Armenian teams which won gold medals in the 2006, 2008 and 2012 Chess Olympiads and the World Team Championship in 2011.

Aronian became a Grandmaster at 17 and joined the world’s elite a few years later, eventually reaching a peak FIDE rating of 2835, the fourth highest ever. His notable tournament achievements include winning the FIDE World Cup twice (2005, 2017), a feat matched only by Viswanathan Anand. More recently Aronian won the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz (2019), during which he had a win and two draws against World Champion Magnus Carlsen. He also won the prestigious WR Masters (2023) and the American Cup (2024). Levon won team silver playing for the United States in the 2024 Chess Olympiad as well as a silver medal for his play on board four.