Grandmaster Levon Aronian: The Armernian Chess Sensation

Born at the industrial city of Yerevan in Armenia, grandmaster Levon Aronian is the country's current number one chess player. This tough competitor always makes sure that he represents his country pretty well in every international chess tournament. As of July 2007, he ranks eighth overall amongst the best and the brightest chess competitors all over the world with a 2750 Elo rating.

Aronian showed a lot of great potential in the game even during his younger years. In 1994, he surprisingly won the World Under-12 championship tournament which includes future chess grandmasters Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain, and Alexander Grischuk of Russia. This impressive performance is a very clear glimpse of what to expect from him in the future.

The development of this Armenian chess grandmaster was very quick. He bagged the World Junior Championship in 2002 by outscoring outstanding chess players like Luke James McShane of England, Artyom Timofeev of Russia, and Pentala Harikrishna of India. Two years after, he participated in the fide world chess Championship. He was able to reach the third round of the prestigious tournament before getting eliminated.

In 2005, Aronian earned another great experience as a professional chess player after joining the Gibtele.com Masters tournament that was held in the British overseas territory called Gibraltar. The event was so stunning that five players eventually ended at the top spot. Emil Sutovsky of Israel, Alexei Shirov of Spain, and Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria were among those who finished first with Aronian.

At the latter parts of the same year, Aronian took part in the chess World Cup tournament that was held at the administrative center Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia. Aronian won this international event by defeating Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine. In 2006, he joined the Linares tournament only to find himself winning the event over FIDE world chess champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

The Armenian chess sensation started 2007 strong by joining the Corus chess tournament. The event took place in a small town in the Netherlands in January where he finished first place with fellow chess grandmasters Topalov and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan. In May, he earned another notable victory in a rapid chess showdown against world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

Aronian was also a part of the 2007 installment of the highly anticipated FIDE World Chess Championship. After the event, he earned the respect of his opponents as well as chess fans worldwide by finishing seventh overall. The year 2008 also brought a lot of promise for him as he started with an impressive win at the Corus chess tournament in January.