The history of chess dates back to about the fourth or third centuries BC. According to one of the ancient legends, this game was invented by a certain Brahmin. It is not known whether this is true, but India is considered to be the birthplace of chess.
General information
Today this game is incredibly popular in many countries, including small Armenia. Moreover, since 2012, chess has been a compulsory school subject in this country: it is taught from the second to the fourth grade. According to the famous academician Iosif Orbeli, chess appeared in small mountainous Armenia in the ninth century. They are mentioned in ancient manuscripts, which can still be seen in Yerevan at the Institute of Ancient Writings.
Few people know that one of the most common male names among Armenians is Tigran. The fact is that that was the name of the first Soviet world chess champion. It was Tigran Petrosyan in 1963-1969. won such a high title. This Armenian caused a chess fever in his homeland, which, it must be said, not only did not go away, but also grew to incrediblescale. The chess organization in Armenia has many grandmasters and international masters in its ranks. These are R. Vaganyan and S. Lputyan, G. Kasparov and others. In this list, Levon Aronian, a chess player who has gained incredible popularity in his historical homeland in recent years, takes his well-deserved place. Even children recognize him. It was he who won the World Chess Cup in Tbilisi in 2017.
Levon Aronian is the sixth grandmaster on the planet who managed to overcome the mark of two thousand eight hundred points in the FIDE rating list. Before him, such eminent chess players as Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Topalov and Carlsen are on the list.
Levon Aronian - biography
He is known for his enviable stability over the board and is considered one of the brightest grandmasters. In addition, Levon Aronian is a chess player with his own unique style of play. Today he is in the cohort of the elect with the current rating of 2792. Aronian Levon was born on October 6, 1982 in the capital of Armenia - Yerevan. His mother is Armenian and his father is Jewish. At the age of five, the boy learned to play chess. The first mentor was the elder sister Lilith. They say that the boy often brought her up, so Lilith, in order to calm her disobedient younger brother, sat him in front of the blackboard. It was with his sister that the current world champion Aronian began to play chess. Levon soon began attending a circle at the Palace of Pioneers in Yerevan. His first coach was Lyudmila Finareva. It was she who taught the child prodigy the basics of chess.
Since then, Levon has changed a lot, has become moreorganized. The first, very serious success for a talented boy came at the age of eleven. It was at this age that Levon Aronian won the World Children's Chess Championship in the under-12 category. His rivals were already venerable R. Ponomarev and A. Grischuk.
Parents actively developed their son's chess talent. They actively purchased for him a huge number of specialized books, which the future grandmaster Aronian diligently studied. Levon says in his memoirs that he was then incredibly struck by the roles of A. Alekhine and Larsen's findings. Moreover, at one time he even tried to imitate this Danish chess player.
One of the most important events that determined the development of a career, in his opinion, is the Junior World Cup. Levon Aronian then won a landslide victory in Goa. It was during that period that a strong desire to always be the first and an awareness of self-confidence came to him. According to Aronian, he fully realized his chess talent only at the age of sixteen.
Life in Germany
At the age of nineteen, the world junior champion went to Europe and tried to rise to a new level in his game there. The fact is that at that time his homeland was going through hard times, so there were no special conditions for the development of chess in the country. In Germany, Aronian Levon starts playing in team tournaments, while working on his own shortcomings. One of them he called his very mediocre debuts. I overcame this problem by getting acquainted with the findings of many leading players. Thanks to painstaking work on himself, in 2005 Levon G. Aronian entered the top five best chess players in the world. He had an excellent rating of 2850 units.
About Mentors
Many specialists were involved in the process of becoming such a chess genius as Levon Aronian. However, the grandmaster himself singles out only two. At one time, in a young pupil, Melikset Khachiyan was the first to be able to discern a talent for combinatorics. He began to actively develop it, constantly loading Levon with special exercises. It was this coach who instilled in Aronian a love for blitz. Under Khachiyan's guidance, the young chess genius has come a long way from being a third-class player to becoming an International Master.
Much later life brought Levon Aronian and Arshak Petrosian together. And although the cooperation was very short-lived, however, the new mentor was able to reveal the depth of the game of chess from a completely different side, unknown to the future champion. This allowed Levon to understand not only his strengths, but also his weaknesses.
Achievements
Aronian won a lot of great victories. Back in 2005, Levon, together with H. Nikamaru and B. Avruh, was the best in the open tournament in Gibr altar. A few months later, at the European Championships in Poland, he took third place. In December of the same year, the Armenian grandmaster won the World Cup held in Khanty-Mansiysk according to the knockout system. Levon Aronian won the World Chess Olympiad three times while playing for the Armenian team in 2006,2008 and 2012. In 2011 he won the world championship. Aronian has repeatedly taken first place in prestigious super tournaments: four times in Wijk aan Zee, in Linares in 2006, twice at the Tal Memorial and in 2013 at the Alekhine Memorial. The Armenian chess player has achieved quite serious titles. He twice became the strongest in Fischer chess, won the world championship in blitz.
Talented "sloth"
Many experts who know Levon well say that the Armenian grandmaster is distinguished by a special style of play. At first glance, a light, laid-back style often turns into a defeat for the opponent, from which he cannot recover for a long time. Few people know that behind such skill is a long hard work. According to the chess player himself, the most important condition for success is the ability to quickly navigate even in standard positions. This is what gives Aronian self-confidence. He is able to impress even experienced chess players with incredibly sparkling improvisation, provoke an opponent to make a mistake, and then win.
Wedding
In October 2017, another chess family was born: Ariana Caoli and Levon Aronian got married. The wife of the Armenian grandmaster is from the Philippines. She is also a chess player and represents Australia. With Levon Caoli has long been in a close relationship. The wedding ceremony took place in the ancient monastery of Saghmosavank. The President of Armenia S. Sargsyan himself acted as the imprisoned father of the groom. Later, the celebration continued in one of the best Yerevan restaurants. The media were literally full of the fact that one of the best sons of Armenia, Levon Aronian, had finally married. The grandmaster's wife gave him an original wedding gift - a bride's dance to the tune of an old Armenian song.
Interesting facts
They say that in his youth, Levon amazed his rivals by humming something during the fight. Most recently, one of the media called Aronian "Armenian Beckham", comparing the incredible popularity of this chess player in his homeland with the massive adoration of the football player in his native Britain.
Even in his adolescence, Levon was nicknamed the "bright boy" for the endless positive that he gave to others.
Aronian admits that today, as before, he feels incredible pleasure from playing chess, especially when there is an interesting scenario in the game.
