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In One Shot: Aronian and Kramnik’s first meeting in Yerevan


Photo: Aronyan's archive


Yerevan hosted the World Chess Olympiad in 1996. Plenty of world-renowned chess players competed in the Sports and Concert Complex.

Now grandmaster, then just a young man, Levon Aronian was among the participants. He tells the story behind this photo for In one Shot series of Mediamax Sport.

I was in Armenia’s 2nd  team at that time. My sister speaks several languages, and she worked as a translator in the Olympiad.

Famous chess players arrived in Yerevan. She took photos with many of them. Vladimir Kramnik was already a big star; so naturally, we didn’t know each other personally. I was a bit shy, but my sister approached him and asked for a picture.

I couldn’t even imagine at that time that one day I will be considered one of the best chess players and will compete with Kramnik myself.

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