Levon Aronian and the move from Armenia to the United States. Reasons, Complex History and Precedents – OA Sport

Today’s story, actually in the past few weeks, which in the past few hours has taken a turn from the point of no return, is the story of Levon Aronian. It is not entirely strange to see a chess player change his nationality in front of the chessboard: but in this case, the story is of great significance because it is one of the symbols of Armenia. In this sense, you only need to look at the Facebook post of the person in question, along with the number of people who have accessed it.

Levon Aronian decided to play for the United States. Once again, it worked Rex Senkfield, A billionaire who not only has a lot of interest in chess but also organizes one of the most important tournaments in the world, the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis. It is precisely here that Aronian will settle, having succumbed to a flirtation that has continued since at least the middle of the last decade.

For Arunyan, things have changed since 2018, when Armenia’s presidency also changed. The former leader of the country, Serge SargsyanFor a period of 10 years, the President of the Republic and for a few days also from the Council, he resigned under the pressure of protests, which then turned into Velvet Revolution. Sargsyan particularly helped both Aronian and chess in general in Armenia (also headed the federation), one of those regions in which the country can boast of an already indifferent traditions as an independent country, with the three gold medals in the Chess Olympiad collected between 2006 and 2012. .

The story ended up touching Aronian closely: in his long letter he explains how the new government’s promises to keep interest in chess alive were not followed by the facts. Everything culminates in a specific sentence:Our experts say Levon Aronian has no potentialAn extremely heavy sentence, for someone who, despite being born in 1982, is still number 6 on the FIDE world lists. Shortly thereafter, in Norway, he went on to defeat both of them in succession. Magnus Carlsen Which – which Fabiano Caruana.

In recent weeks, the mother defended her son’s behavior, also confirming how much he got in economic terms: 200,000 Armenian drams. It looks like it is written this way a lot, but the conversion to EUR reads just over 300. For years, Aronian turned down all offers that came to him to change the nationalityIn amounts that were a thousand times higher than those mentioned.

The Armenian pick is not the first, and certainly not the last, of this kind in the history of chess. We know very well that Fabiano Caruana, Also convinced by Rex Sinquefield, but with motives that go beyond also, having both Italian and American citizenships (born in Miami). Wesley Sue, In 2014, he changed direction from the Philippines to the states as he is now permanently present on the American soil, as well as with his family in Canada; The case was the subject of indifferent consequences between one end of the story and the next. But at the end of 2018, the Cuban passed under the stars and stripes flag Linear Dominguez Perez. Not all of these situations should be confused as the case Hikaru Nakamura, Who, despite being born in Japan and the son of an American mother, has lived in the United States since he was two years old and is therefore American in all respects. Here we only talk about states of stars and stripes, but we can mention many others (such as German Arkadij naiditsch, Who moved from Germany to Azerbaijan, although he now wishes to return to his native country and is not welcomed at the moment).

Another thorny issue remains on the table, and that is Ali Reza Firouzja, Who – which Since the end of 2019, he is no longer playing as an Iranian, but under the FIDE flag. He currently lives in France, and although he has yet to choose his future destination, it is possible that, also taking into account his and his family’s experiences, he will move to defend the trans-Albanian colors. After all, it is also his intention. In this case, we are talking about the class of 2003 not the question of whether it will become a contender for the world title, but of when.

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