Levon Aronian's next opponent is Vachier-Lagrave

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. The next opponent of the leader of the Armenian men's chess team Levon Aronian in Grand Slam tournament is Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

As reports "Armenpress" Levon Aronian will compete with blacks against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the 4th round of Grand Slam 6th tournament (Chess Masters Final). Michael Adams will face with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov representing Azerbaijan.

Currently Michael Adams tops the ranking list of the tournament with 5 points. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has 4 points, Aronian has scored 3 points. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan occupies the last position.

The Grand Slam 6th tournament final is held on October 7-13, 2013, in Bilbao, Spain. The organizers have invited Aronian taking into account his excellent performance this year in Alekhine Memorial (Paris-Saint Petersburg).

In the FIDE October rankings Levon Aronyan was on the third position. The Armenian Grand Master had 2795 points.

Aronyan 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.

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

Aronyan was born on 6 October 1982 in Yerevan, Armenia. He was taught to play chess by his sister Lilit at the age of nine. His first coach was the Grand Master Melikset Khachiyan. An early sign of his ability came when he won the 1994 World Youth Chess Championship (under-12) in Szeged with 8/9, ahead of future luminaries Étienne Bacrot, Ruslan Ponomariov, Francisco Vallejo Pons, and Alexander Grischuk.

Aronyan played for Armenia in the Chess Olympiads of 1996, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010. He took team bronze medal in 2004 and team gold medal in 2006, 2008 and 2012. In the 2010 Chess Olympiad he won the silver medal for his individual performance on board one. He was a member of the gold-medal winning Armenian team at the World Team Chess Championship in 2011.