He constantly says he hardly trains, but nobody believes him, as he is a great player and both things are incompatible. He is only 27 years old but has already won the Grand Slam Final Masters, the World Cup and the Linares and Wijk aan Zee (twice) tournaments. That naturalness, his universal style and belonging to a country where chess is a national passion, as well as a balanced nervous system, configure the Armenian Levon Aronian as a very solid value.

“I’m not prepared to compete with the big ones. The only advantage I have over those beasts is my total ignorance and fresh thinking”, Aronian said at Christmas 2005, a few days after having won the World Cup in Siberia and some days just before his debut in the Wijk aan Zee Corus tournament (Holland), where he shared the 7th place of 14 participants. Just a month later he triumphed in Linares, the chess Wimbledon, so surprisingly as convincingly.

This wasn’t really an objective surprise and had a lot to do with Aronian’s natural modesty. Whoever had followed his career ever since his childhood would have already noticed his enormous talent, demonstrated when he won the 1994 World Under 12 Championship in Szeged (Hungary), ahead of future luminaries such as Bacrot (France), Ponomariov (Ukraine), Grischuk (Russia) and Vallejo (Spain), and confirmed in 1996 with the silver medal in the World Under 14 Championship in Cala Galdana (Menorca) sharing podium with the also Armenian Sarguissian and Vallejo.

Aronian, second son of a couple of scientists, learnt to play chess at the age of 5 with his sister; his mother worked as an engineer specialised in explosions and demolitions; his father, a Byelorussian physicist, worked as a researcher specialised in laser technology. Both of them sacrificed their professional prestige to emigrate to Berlin with only one objective: that Levon, who was 18 years old at the time, could develop all his talent for chess, joining a team in the Bundesliga and being closer to the important European tournaments.

They soon saw their decision had been right. World Junior Champion in 2002, Aronian continued making progress –not attracting much attention though – as a chess player and as a person. He speaks Armenian, Russian, English and a bit of German, and he likes having a try with Spanish, making jokes with the rude words. Prone to the high risk in his games, both organisers and followers are fond of Aronian and will enjoy of his presence during the Leon Chess Masters.

BEST RESULTS:

Winner of the World Cup 2005 in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

.World Chess Champion U-12 and U-20.

.Winner of the Linares tournament 2006.

.Olympic Champion with Armenia team in Turin (Italy) 2006.

.Olympic Champion with Armenia team in Dresden (Germany) 2008

.Winner of Corus Wijk aan Zee Tournament in 2007 and 2008.

.Second Place in Nanjing Tournament (China) in 2009.

.Winner of the 2009 Grand Slam Final Masters in Bilbao.

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Is a 41 year old grandmaster too old to be among the top ten? That kind of question has been around for the last decade, due to the chess software’s tremendous progression and influence on the modern chess. If the new stars are younger and younger, the decline should arrive earlier as well..

May be not, as Boris Gelfand (together with Anand, Ivanchuk and Shirov) has demonstrate along the last years, and specially in December 2009, when he won the World Cup (in Siberia), a very demanding 26 days competition, after beating a former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov (15 years younger than him) in a electrifying final. Born in Minsk (Belarus, USSR) in 1968, he immigrated to Rishon Lezion (Israel) in 1998..

Working hard was always the key point for Gelfand, who even tried his hand in writing - His book ‘My most memorable games’ is a well-acclaimed, serious piece of work. His impressive chess career started in his junior years, when he won the Junior championship of the (former) Soviet Union, the European Junior, and tied for first for the World Junior. He has a pretty list of wins in major events over the years, most notably in the mid 90’s, but he will always be remembered for his triumphs, first in the 140 GM qualifier in Palma de Mallorca in 1989, and sole first in the 1993 Biel Interzonal– two amazing feats! He was always in the elite club since then, although some lack of energy at the crucial moments prevented him from getting even higher several times. Nevertheless, he was ranked the world's third best at his peak, in 1992, after chess legends Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. Gelfand is currently ranked ninth in the world, and has won over 30 major championships. He knows what the key factor is to explain his second sportive youth: “My daughter. She gives me the extra energy I need to perform well”.

BEST RESULTS.-

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Main first places:

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.European Youth Championship, 1989

.Majorca (GMA), 1989

.Moscow, 1992

.Wijk aan Zee, 1992

.Manila, 1993

.Biel Interzonal 1993

.Chalkidiki, 1993

.Dos Hermanas, 1994

.Wijk aan Zee, 1994

.Debrecen, 1995

.Vienna, 1996

.Tilburg, 1996

.Polanica Zdroj, 1998

.Polanica Zdroj, 2000

.Cannes, 2002

.Pamplona, 2004

.Biel, 2005

.ACP World Rapid Cup, 2009

.Chess World Cup, 2009

Medals:

. Gold: Chess Olympiad 1990 (USSR)

. Silver: Chess Olympiad 2008 (Israel)

. Bronze: European Ch. 2001 in Leon (Israel)

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The best chess player ever born in Spain, Paco Vallejo, current Spanish champion, won his first medal at 9: silver at the U-10 World Championship 1991. Several silver and bronze medals followed at different ages (eleven times out of fourteen among the top ten), until he managed the gold one, at the U-18 World Championship 2000. Since then, his progression wasn’t so fast as the Spanish chess amateurs expected, although three World Champions (Kasparov, Anand and Topalov) said, separately: “Vallejo has enough talent to be among the top ten”. Finally, he broke the 2.700 barrier in 2009, and gave a very good impression in Linares 2010. He looks now able to get the decisive jump on the chess elite.

Best results:

. World Championship U-10 1991: Silver

. World Championship U-12 1993: Silver

. World Championship U-14 1996: Bronze

. World Championship U-18 2000: Gold

. European Championship U-20 2000: Silver

. Spanish Champion: 2006 (Leon) and 2009 (Mallorca)

. Capablanca Memorial 2001: 1st

. Melody Amber 2006 (Monte Carlo): 3^rd

. Young Masters Cuernavaca (Mexico) 2006: 1st

. European Ch. 2003(nations): Gold (indiv.)

. European Ch. 2007 (nations): Silver (indiv.)

. Chess Olympiad 2008: Silver (indiv.)

. European Club Cup: Gold (twice, with NAO France)

..

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The best Cuban chess player since Capablanca, and the best Latin American now, Leinier Dominguez became in 2008 a new member of the exclusive 2.700+ club. Multiple times champion of his country, Dominguez won the strong 2008 World Blitz Championship, with 11.5/15. He first made a name for himself when, in the 2004 FIDE knockout World Championship, managed to advance as far as the fifth round, where Radjabov finally stopped him. His win at the 2006 powerful Barcelona tournament, with an 8/9 result, marked his performance rating at a sky-reaching 2932(!). The Cuban GM’s results in 2008, 2009 and Corus-Wijk aan Zee 2010 have already signalled that his placement is fitting. Having in mind his excellent opening preparation and cold blood, it looks like he is going to stay over the 2.700 barrier for a long time.

BEST RESULTS:

.World Championship U-18, 2000: Silver medal.

.Capablanca Memorial 2004: 1^st

.World Championship 2004: 5^th

.Ciudad de Barcelona 2006: 1^st

.Memorial Capablanca: 1^st

.Sarajevo 2008: 2nd

.Biel 2008: 2nd

.Blitz World Championship 2008

.Corus-Wijk aan Zee 2009: 5th