Epress.am News from Armenia
Levon Aronian is having a pretty good month. Actually, he’s have a pretty good year.
Aronian, an Armenian grandmaster, who has recently risen to No. 3 in the world (along the way becoming only the sixth player to crack the 2,800 rating level), won the World Blitz Championship in Moscow on Thursday, reports The New York Times Chess Blog.
The victory followed his tie for first in the Tal Memorial, which ended Sunday, and his recent stellar performances at the European Club Cup, where he scored 4.5 out of 6 points, and the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, in which he scored 7.5 out of 10.
In the blitz championship — where each player started with three minutes and had two seconds added to their time after each month — Aronian scored 24.5 points in 38 rounds, facing each of the other competitors twice. Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan finished only a half point back in second place, while Magnus Carlsen of Norway, the defending champion, was another half point back in third.
Boris Gelfand of Israel and Hikaru Nakamura of the United States, who is a noted speed-chess player, tied for fourth with 21.5 points each.