"My second came here to prepare me while he's expecting a baby..." — Levon Aronian

Levon Aronian

American GM

“I’m not really fighting for anything. I might as well have some fun in the last rounds.

The issue normally in such events, when you’re on minus, it’s easy to just finish the tournament and kind of give up on a tournament. But my second came here while he’s expecting a baby.

The guy just sacrificed a lot to be here. So, I thought, I cannot just give up on a tournament.

[Interviewer: Unless you tell him he can go back home…]

He actually left in the morning today, and his baby is born.

[Interviewer: Did he make it in time?]

Yes! He got information and he couldn’t prepare me today, so he had to leave. It was Mikhail Antipov.”