Levon Aronian: ‘Vladimir Kramnik needs professional help… he has saviour complex’

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L-R: Armenian-American GM Levon Aronian and 14th World Chess Champion, Russia's Vladimir Kramnik. (Rafal Oleksiewicz via FIDE and Michal Walusza via FIDE)

When Vladimir Kramnik’s “crusade” against online cheating was at its peak earlier this year, one of the most prominent voices asking him to reconsider his hardline approach was that of Levon Aronian, who wrote a long post on social media imploring the former world champion to see reason.

One of the most respected men in chess, Aronian was once a close confidant of Kramnik. But over the last few months, the relationship has frayed as the Russian legend has continued his campaign to highlight suspicions about cheating in online chess without providing what the rest of the game’s fraternity would consider conclusive or convincing evidence. This has gained even more notoriety after the passing of American grandmaster Daniel Narodistsky after he too was repeatedly alleged by Kramnik to have cheated in online chess.

Aronian says that he has now stopped trying to convince Kramnik privately to reconsider his approach and believes that the former world champion needs professional help.

“He’s in a place where I think he needs professional help. I don’t think he’s open to changing his opinion. I’ve had some friends and other people that I know have been dealing with kind of delusions and psychological problems. I care for him, I wish him the best, but I cannot help him,” Aronian tells The Indian Express on the sidelines of the FIDE World Cup.

“Me trying to convince him will not work anymore. I’ve tried doing it and understood that he just perceives it in the wrong way. So I just stopped any efforts.”

In the open letter that Aronian posted on X in June, the Armenian-American called Kramnik his “chess parent” but said he was surprised to see a “different Vlad” over the last few years.

“Vlad, brother, ask all of your chess friends. Nobody thinks that what you are doing is good and pure. You are fighting your own demons, and I can understand how much it drains you both mentally and physically… Please challenge your convictions. You think you are saving chess from cheaters, but most of us see you as the guy with the hammer who thinks everything is a nail.”

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Before his death at 29, Naroditsky had spoken out about what he perceived as allegations against his integrity by Kramnik and the mental toll they were taking on him. World body FIDE has also opened an investigation into Naroditsky’s death with their Ethics Commission looking into the matter.

Transformation

Aronian says the open letter was an attempt to remind Kramnik and the rest of the world what a kind and helpful man he used to be only a few years back. Kramnik has helped multiple Indian prodigies – like world champion D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Leon Luke Mendonca and Raunak Sadhwani – in their younger days at a chess camp in Geneva just before the COVID pandemic struck.

“Through my message, I wanted to appeal to not just him, but also to people who are attacking him. It was designed for people to be kind of more supportive (towards Kramnik). Because I truly believe that if someone is having a damaging role, if he’s going through a stage of becoming somebody evil, if you call him evil and just kind of attack him every single time, he’s not going to become a normal person. You kind of have to remind them what they are. That’s what I tried. And I tried to remind others or some people who didn’t know who he is, that this person used to be generally the light (a great guy), let’s say. I understood more or less that, now he perceives himself as the saviour of the world. He has a saviour complex, which is a problem.”

Ask Aronian what the earlier version of Kramnik was like — the one he knew intimately and considered his chess parent — and Aronian says: “He was very relaxed and somebody who liked to discuss things and somebody who was very open to helping and supporting people. He was a good guy.”