MUMBAI: There is a new knight - albeit bespectacled and looking like a pensive software designer - on the round table of the chess elite. He is a 23-year-old Armenian Grandmaster named Levon Aronian. In April, he became the world number three chess player after winning the Linares tournament in March.
Linares is not his sole achievement but it is certainly his greatest so far. Linares is to chess what Wimbledon is to tennis: a fabled tournament played by the world’s best, and Aronian outranked them all. Even current world champion Veselin Topalov. An omen, perhaps?
Winning Linares is no flash in the pan, mind you. Aronian’s resume is packed with achievements: under-12 World Champion, FIDE junior rapid champion at age 14, and member of Armenia’s Olympic team by age 16. Aronian caught the world’s attention by winning the FIDE World Cup in 2005, and now Linares.
As many commentators have said, most young prodigies burn out early. It is still anyone’s guess whether Aronian will continue to play well or better, or whether his King will topple on the board. For now, though, he is leading the charge of the new generation of chess Grandmasters.
And there are many prodigies breathing down his neck: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimur Radjabov of Azerbaijan (what is it with tiny countries and chess talent?), Ukrainian teenager Sergey Karjakin (remember him? He became the world’s youngest ever Grandmaster).
Raised in a climate of immense theoretical advancement, especially in Openings, as well as the active use of computers as playing and training tools, these players are experimenting with new ways to play the grand old game.
Aronian is said to be an ace at blitz play (chess games with very small time limits) and the insane one-minute chess. He is also among the best at Fischerandom Chess, a variant of chess which emphasises creativity and calculation over memorisation of chess theory. Invented by the great Bobby Fischer, Fischerandom is considered by many to be the future of chess play and Aronian will certainly be one of its first heroes.
Looking at his record, it is unlikely that Aronian will ascend to the greatness of Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer or display the dazzling tactics of Mikhail ‘The Terrible’ Tal.
But he keeps winning, and he is the new celebrity in classical chess. There will be speculation about Aronian’s prospects for the world title.
He has arrived.
