Former world youth and junior champion, Levon added another world title in 2006: He is the Fischer-Random champ, after dethroning Svidler in Mainz. Armenia’s leading player is now a household name in the chess circles, having exponentially climbed to the zenith. One look at a graph showing his rise from 2000 to 2006 looks a lot like the stock of a Bio-Technology company!

His Corus debut last year landed him at 50%, a result he would no doubt want to improve on this time around, but that would depend if his preparation would resemble more of his game against Sokolov or the one versus Topalov! . Three other events were pretty golden for the relaxed and friendly Berlin-based Armenian: Prestigious sole first place in Linares-Morelia (8.5/14), leading his national team to a fantastic gold medal at the Turin Olympiad (and becoming national heroes in the process!), and a tie for first at the Tal Memorial (5.5/9 with Leko and Ponomariov). The flaw in this ointment was a result-to-forget in Dortmund: an uncharacteristic 2/9, one position away from the cellar. One doubts that even that one had too much effect on the hood natured Levon, who in a recent interview said that ‘once you’re alright in life, you don’t really care about losing in chess’.