Levon Aronian is a grandmaster born in Yerevan in 1982. He learned chess from his sister at the age of nine and won the World Youth Under-12 Championship in 1994. He was awarded the grandmaster title in 2000, at the age of 17, and won the World Junior Championship in 2002. His peak rating of 2830, reached in March 2014, is among the highest in history.

Aronian won the FIDE World Cup in 2005 and 2017, the World Blitz Championship in 2010 and the Chess960 world title in 2006 and 2007. He won Chess Olympiad team gold with Armenia in 2006, 2008 and 2012. His tournament victories include Tata Steel Masters 2012, the Sinquefield Cup 2015, Norway Chess 2017 and the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz in 2019 and 2025.