Levon Aronian, the all-sizzle, all-steak veteran of chess, is on a roll these days. Having beaten the likes of Magnus Carlsen, Arjun Erigaisi, Hikaru Nakamura and Hans Niemann to claim the Freestyle Chess title at Las Vegas last month, he conquered the St Louis Rapid and Blitz event last week — which had a strong field comprising players like world champion Gukesh and Fabiano Caruana — with two rounds to spare.
In a sport of young prodigies, the 42-year-old Aronian is still marching stride for stride with the best in the world. And showing that he is capable of beating them at the same time.
“The world is a better place when Aronian is playing well,” former world champion Garry Kasparov had tweeted when Aronian won the Sinquefield Cup in 2015.
The same holds true to this day 10 years later.
At Las Vegas, things got heated between players at the technical committee meeting before the tournament started since they could not agree to some regulation or another. Aronian stepped in, playing elder brother, trying to mediate peace.
“When I was growing up, the chess world was so divided. Now I feel it’s a good moment to unite people because chess is becoming more popular. The sport has a chance to become bigger than ever. This is a moment to let go of our egos and think about the sport,” he told ChessBase India after winning the Las Vegas event.
It is hard to find someone in the sport as liked as Aronian. He doesn’t need the Las Vegas slots machines to look like a man who has won the lottery. He sports the most flamboyant shirts seen in the chess arena, often complemented by the widest smile you will see a player sport before and after games. And in his interviews he veers away from shallow concepts to talk about his dreams, principles and avoiding temptations that come with playing elite sport. No matter how hard a loss he has just suffered on the board, he’s the kind of player who will spend time obliging fans. Other players might scribble and walk away in the span of a second, but Aronian serves his autographs with a wide smile and a nod of the head, like he’s now become an acquaintance.
“Sometimes I get upset that he doesn’t even see how brilliant he is,” Aronian’s wife Ani recently told ChessBase India. “He always greets all the fans, always signs everything no matter what mood he is in or how much of a hurry he is in. I sometimes ask him if I should tell fans that he needs to go and prepare, and he will say ‘no, no, I will do it because these people waited for me for so long. It’s so important to them,’” she added.
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Levon Aronian with wife Ani. (Lennart Ootes via Saint Louis Chess)
Aronian, of course, is no people-pleaser. He often speaks his mind, no matter how thorny the issue. At the peak of the Magnus Carlsen vs Hans Niemann cheating scandal in 2022, Aronian was asked for his opinion. It was a time when most grandmasters had chosen to stay tight-lipped about the controversy.
“It quite often happens when young players play very well there are accusations towards them. I mean all of my colleagues are pretty much paranoid. Quite often I was the one telling them, ‘come on, guys. I know i’m an idiot myself and I’m still a good player.’” Aronian said before continuing: “If the young players are not playing very well or not occasionally beating us, then what can we learn from them? It also shows that we haven’t taught them anything. I’ve played against Magnus when he was very young and I’ve learned a great deal from him. If I was sitting there and thinking that there’s something suspicious about how strong he plays, I don’t think it would be very beneficial for me. I could never learn from him.”
Just earlier this year, when former world champion Vladimir Kramnik continued his years-long crusade against perceived cheating in online chess, Aronian had written long posts on X beseeching his ‘chess parent’ to rethink his opinions. Those social media posts were the finest acts of tight-rope walking you will see from an athlete: like a man coaxing his elder brother to see reason, while also taking care not to offend him.
It’s not just the fans that adore him.
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At Las Vegas, Vidit Gujrathi was impressed by Aronian. Bibisara Assaubayeva, the lone female competing in the field, was actually rooting for him. Even Carlsen couldn’t help but feel happy for a man who had played a role in denying the Norwegian the freestyle title at Las Vegas.
“Levon’s win (at Las Vegas) was incredibly impressive. Very well deserved as well. I’m very happy for him. He has been probably the biggest fan of freestyle among the top players for many years. He’s still very good, but even in his most prime years, that was kind of his favorite mode of play. So to see him win, as long as I’m not winning, then I’m happy for him. And you know, there is always some consolation in having lost to the tournament winner — clearly the deserved one,” Carlsen commented after Aronian’s win at Las Vegas last month.
Levon on winning the 2025 Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz!#STLRapidBlitz #GrandChessTour pic.twitter.com/QsxIzP2njA
— Saint Louis Chess Club (@STLChessClub) August 16, 2025
When Carlsen speaks of Aronian’s ‘most prime years’ he’s referring to the heady decades at the turn of the century, when Aronian won his first FIDE World Cup title in 2005 and then repeated the feat in 2017 to become a rare chess player to win the event two times. It’s a feat so hard that even Carlsen has not matched it. He was also the talisman leading the Armenian national team to three Olympiad gold medals in 2006, 2008 and 2012.
With his daughter Zabelle being born in 2022, he’s spent plenty of time over the last two years playing consummate family man while still playing in whatever events he could spare time for.
“At some point last year, especially when I didn’t have so many events to compete in, I realized how unhappy it gets me not to play chess,” Aronian said after winning St Louis.
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“Playing a lot is of course very hard when you have a small child and family, but they support me because they know that it brings me joy. My daughter is always saying, ‘Go kill them,’” he joked.
That he certainly has at Las Vegas and St Louis in the span of two months as he rediscovers his ‘prime years’. And as Kasparov said, this can only be good for the sport.
Magnus Carlsen might be the face of the sport, Vishy Anand might be its voice. The Indian prodigies are the sport’s beating heart, pumping lifeblood into it. But in the form of Levon Aronian, chess finds its flamboyant and principled soul.
