YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. The leader of the Armenian Men’s Chess Team Levon Aronian finds that he has just underestimated his opponent. As reports “Armenpress” citing the official website of the tournament, in particular Aronian underscored: “All the participants of this tournament are strong players. This is not the first time I lose in the first round. The statistics shows that I play better in such cases. I just underestimated the whites today.”

“The mere opportunity to play with such opponents is a feast in itself,” Levon Aronian underscored.

In the first round of the Chess Candidates’ Tournament the strongest chess player of the Republic of Armenia Levon Aronian lost to the former world champion Viswanathan Anand. Aronian played with blacks. Other couples were Dmitry Andreikin – Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin – Peter Svidler, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – Veselin Topalov. They all shared point with each other.

The FIDE Candidates Tournament takes place in Khanty-Mansiysk March 13th to 31st 2014 (playing days). Former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand has signed up to try and get his title back. Qualifiers: Vladimir Kramnik, Dmitry Andreikin, Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin with Peter Svidler as the host nominee.

Levon Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster. On the May 2012 FIDE list, he was ranked number two in the world and had an Elo rating of 2825, making him the third highest rated player in history.

Aronian won the Chess World Cup 2005. He led the Armenian national team to the Gold medals in the 2006 (Turin), 2008 (Dresden) and 2012 (Istanbul) Chess Olympics and at the World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo 2011. He won the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, qualifying him for the Candidates tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012, where he was knocked out in the first round. He was also World Chess960 Champion in 2006 and 2007, World Rapid Chess Champion in 2009, and World Blitz Chess Champion in 2010.

Aronian was declared the best sportsman of Armenia in 2005 and was awarded the title of "Honoured Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia" in 2009.