GM Levon Aronian Now Represents the United States

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GM Levon Aronian, now a freshly minted US Chess Federation player, at the 2019 Sinquefield Cup. Photo by Lennart Ootes, courtesy of the Saint Louis Chess Club

At the end of February, we reported that GM Levon Aronian was moving to St. Louis, Missouri and the process of officially switching federations was underway. On November 30, FIDE officially informed US Chess that "Levon Aronian, FIDE ID 13300474, has been changed from the Armenian to the USA Chess Federation."

Aronian first made a name for himself by winning the 1994 World Youth Chess Championship. He went on to lead the Armenian national team to three Olympiad gold medals (2006, 2008, 2012) and one World Team Championship gold (2011). Throughout his career Aronian has amassed many individual victories as well, including the World Cup (2005, 2017), Linares (2006), Corus/Tata Steel (2008, 2011), Norway Chess (2017), Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz (2017, 2019) and the Sinquefield Cup (2015, 2018). Aronian is also a world champion in three formats: he is a former Chess960 World Champion (2006, 2007), World Rapid Champion (2009), and World Blitz World Champion (2010).

The U.S. now has three players in the World Top-10: Fabiano Caruana (4), Levon Aronian (6), and Wesley So (8).

Tony Rich, executive director at the Saint Louis Chess Club, tells US Chess, "Levon Aronian's transfer is another sign that chess is thriving in the United States. He is a great ambassador for chess, and we're happy to welcome him to Saint Louis."

US Chess' executive director, Carol Meyer, echoes Rich's comment, saying, "US Chess is thrilled to have a player of Aronian's talents and accomplishments representing us on the international stage."

Aronian's  "eligibility date" (the date from which a player can represent the new federation free of any fees) is set as 2023-11-08. This means he can now play chess as a USA player but that there are specific events (mainly FIDE organized events such as world championships or events qualifying you for a world championship event) that he cannot participate in unless he pays the transfer fee to FIDE and a compensation fee to Armenia. Upon payment of those fees he can then immediately represent the USA in those events.

US Chess is in the process of submitting an "Application for Participation in FIDE Event Prior to Eligibility Date" form which will enable Aronian to participate in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships in December. Levon will be responsible for all fees associated with this process.

Welcome aboard, Super-GM Levon Aronian.

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Aronian's FIDE Ratings Card on November 30, 2021.