Levon Aronian

American GM

“My memories of the Candidates are mostly negative. I was close a couple of times and felt like I should be the favorite, but I wasn’t able to show my best.

I also have some really weird memories. I was once playing the Candidates, I was behind, and two players were fighting for the win. I was playing against one of them, and suddenly someone from the other player’s team messaged me saying they hoped I would play ‘fair’…

It was absolutely absurd! And actually, before that game, I had prepared an extremely solid opening. But after that message, I thought, “Oh well, I don’t care anymore, I’ll play anything”. I lost that game, and it affected the outcome of the tournament.

It was something that never happened to me before. Never in my life has anyone accused me of throwing a game! The Candidates is the kind of tournament that really messes up people’s brains: they start projecting onto others what they might have done themselves.”