Levon Aronian: Friends call me a cheap tactician!

Levon Aronian of Armenia, 23 years old, surprised the chess world recently by climbing ot the top ten in the FIDE rankings. In the World Cup in Khanty he startled the field by winning his first five games – all of them. Then followed the first reluctant draw, which took him into round four, where both his regular games against top Spanish GM Vallejo were drawn. In the tiebreak Levon struck out, winning the second game to advance to round five. There is an interview on the official site, which says he "charmed the public with his sincere answers and laugh". We bring you excerpts:

I like it here: good organization, we play and live in nice places. Everything is great… My games were of not a really high quality – I won the games because of luck.

Generally, psychology plays a great role in chess. For example, a person had a bad sleep or food and then he had a bad game. Absolutely everything can influence the game. Yesterday I woke up only at 20 past 2 and I had only 10 minutes to get ready. I didn’t even eat…

I wouldn’t compare myself to a computer. I can only say that I calculate rather quickly and this differentiates me from other players. What else? I’m always self assured and try to win, I always have this ''fighting spirit''.

I started to play when I was in my father’s motherland Byelorussia. My older sister taught me. I was fond of chess, and when we came back to Armenia my parents put me in a chess school, where I got serious training.

I live in Germany now, but I have close connections with Armenia. I don’t even speak German I only understand it. I can speak English too, but I speak only Russian really well.

Generally, friends call me a cheap tactician, and that is not far from the truth. I try to play for the victory when I need it…

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.