Grandmaster Chef: Levon Aronian

by Alexey Root
6/28/2020 – Levon Aronian is the best chess player in Armenia and is currently ranked number 7 in the world. To show appreciation for Aronian, this article has a recipe for a dish that he might like to eat. And, also, an analysis of one of his wins. WIM Alexey Root tells why Aronian is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Photo: David Llada

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Food, love, music

Grandmaster Levon Aronian can cook, according to David Llada, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for FIDE. Aronian visited Llada’s San Sebastián home at the end of September of 2014. Aronian prepared tahnaboor soup, adding his personal touch, chile serrano, which is not in the original recipe. Around that same time, Aronian bought an apartment in San Sebastián.

Three years later, on September 30, 2017, Aronian married Arianne Caoili. In February of 2020, Aronian and Caoili were at their San Sebastián apartment. On March 10, 2020, he retweeted his wife’s menu, adding the header “Bestest wifey!!” 

On March 15, in Armenia while Aronian remained in Spain, Caoili was in a serious car accident. With coronavirus travel restrictions, Aronian’s return to Armenia was challenging. Nonetheless, he made it back to Yerevan. Tragically, on March 30, 2020, his wife died.

In happier times, in the fall of 2017, I first contacted Aronian via Facebook. He was helpful and pleasant when my son and I interviewed him for our Chess & Music article. Aronian loves music, particularly jazz. Even though Aronian was busy winning the World Cup and getting married, he generously responded to our chess and music questions.

Preparing food, studying chess

The recipe in this article is one of Caoili’s mains, a dish called Imam bayildi. The translation is “the iman fainted.” According to Wikipedia, an iman “swooned with pleasure at the flavour when presented with this dish by his wife.”

Although the recipe and game in this article are in honor of Aronian, other chess players may appreciate this article too. It contains an annotated game to study and a recipe to cook. Unlike the recipe in Grandmaster Chef: Anish Giri, which took minutes to prepare, the recipe in Aronian’s honor takes around 2.5 hours. After preparing the dish, readers could eat their meal while playing over the annotated game.

The recipe

Mike Walder wrote:

Imam Bayildi is eggplant stuffed with spiced tomatoes, onions, and garlic. It is typically served at room temperature or slightly warm for those who cannot wait. One can change the spicing to reflect what is available or what interests the cook. For example, substitute oregano for the basil, or use rosemary instead of mint, or use cardamom instead of cinnamon. Or skip some of those herbs and spices. Use less or more garlic. The permutations go on and on. If this is your first time making Imam Bayildi, you might try following the recipe presented here. Then, next time, play around a bit. 

Note: it might seem like an awful lot of olive oil, but the eggplants will soak it up.

As side dishes to the Imam Bayildi, I served grilled olives and feta cheese. For dessert, I served halva and a cup of coffee spiced with cardamom and made in an ibrik. This Imam Bayildi recipe takes up to 2.5 hours to make and feeds 3.


Iman Bayildi, Levon AronianIngredients

  • 3 medium eggplants
  • 3 large or 6 medium tomatoes (canned if ripe tomatoes not available); peeled and chopped
  • 3 medium onions cut thin
  • 6 garlic cloves minced
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ cup of olive oil
  • 1/3 cup of water
  • 2 ½ teaspoons of pomegranate molasses (or sugar if you cannot find/make)
  • Juice of 1 lemon

[Pictured: Imam Bayildi and Aronian-Karjakin just before 27.Rxf6! (click to enlarge)]

Directions

  1. Carefully cut a long deep slit into the eggplants starting at the stem, ending an inch from the other end. Cut as deeply as possible without puncturing the skin on the bottom.
  2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or aluminum foil), brush the paper with olive oil, and place eggplants on paper, slit side up. Put in a 450-degree oven for 20 minutes if cooking Asian long eggplants and 30 minutes if cooking Western eggplants. The skin of the eggplants should start to shrivel, if not keep baking until it does, checking every couple of minutes.
  3. Remove from oven and put the eggplants cut side down into a colander for 30 minutes to lose excess liquid.
  4. Sauté onions in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a lidded skillet large enough to later accommodate the eggplants or a Dutch oven over medium heat, moving the onions regularly until they are clear and tender.
  5. Add the minced garlic, stir the onion and garlic mix for about 30 seconds, being careful not to burn the garlic. Remove from heat.
  6. In a separate bowl put the tomatoes, herbs, cinnamon, the onion/garlic mix, 1 teaspoon of the pomegranate molasses and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Salt to taste if you must (I don’t). Fold together until evenly incorporated.
  7. Put the eggplants slit side up in your skillet. Press lightly on the stem and the opposing end to open the slits. Fill the slits with the tomato-onion mixture.
  8. Mix the remaining olive oil, pomegranate molasses, water, and lemon juice. Pour around the eggplants. Baste the eggplants with the liquid in the pan. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for 90 minutes, basting every 10 minutes.
  9. Remove from heat and let the eggplants sit in their juices for 20 minutes.
  10. Serve when it is near or at room temperature. Serves three people.

The game  

There are many wins in Aronian’s long career. He was the 2002 World Junior Champion and rose to #2 in the world in 2014. Aronian also led the Armenian national team to the Gold medals in the 2006 (Turin), 2008 (Dresden), and 2012 (Istanbul) Chess Olympiads. I asked my co-author, National Master Mike Walder, to select a recent Aronian win.

The game in this article, Aronian versus Karjakin (2019), has been mentioned in the chess press. For example, the moves immediately before and after Aronian’s exchange sacrifice were highlighted in a ChessBase article. For this Grandmaster Chef article, Walder takes a fresh look at the game and includes some cooking references in his annotations.

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,166,62354%2421---
1.d4947,29855%2434---
1.Nf3281,60256%2441---
1.c4182,10256%2442---
1.g319,70256%2427---
1.b314,26554%2427---
1.f45,89748%2377---
1.Nc33,80151%2384---
1.b41,75648%2380---
1.a31,20654%2404---
1.e31,06848%2408---
1.d395450%2378---
1.g466446%2360---
1.h444653%2374---
1.c343351%2426---
1.h328056%2418---
1.a411060%2466---
1.f39246%2436---
1.Nh38966%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
Today we pay tribute to Grandmaster Levon Aronian. Since I wanted to cook Imam Bayildi, a complex dish with several possible variations, I looked for an Aronian win with complex ideas and many options for both players. Instead of the Catalan I expected, I found an endgame arising from the Berlin Defence, also called the Berlin Wall. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 We have entered the endgame on move 8. There are numerous ways to continue, as ChessBase's online database has 16 different moves here. Aronian chooses the third most popular move. 9.h3 9.Nc3 9.Rd1+ 9.b3 9...Be7 Aronian has played both sides of this position. 10.Nc3 Nh4 11.Nxh4 Bxh4 12.f4N The first time this move was played in a high-level game. Previously Be3 and g4 were the most common moves. Bd7 13.Bd2 Kc8?! It would be quite a stretch to criticize this standard Berlin idea. However, as this game plays out, I realize that White envisioned something like this when he played f4. Like a chef deciding which herbs or how much garlic to put in his recipe, Aronian has a goal in mind and sets off to deliver a feast! 13...Re8 14.Kh2 Kc8 15.g3 Bd8= 13...g6 14.Nd1= 14.Be1 Be7 15.f5 Bc5+ 16.Bf2 Bb4 17.g4 Re8 18.Bg3 Bc5+?! Taking on c3 might have been better, ceding the bishop pair but getting opposite-color bishops. White would still be slightly better. Now White gets everything working together like the tomatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs in our recipe. 18...Bxc3 19.bxc3 b6 20.Rae1 c5 21.c4 Kb7 19.Kh2± Bd4 20.Rae1 Now Black taking on c3 doesn't slow White's kingside expansion. b6 21.Nd1 Kb7 22.c3 Bc5 23.Nf2 Be7? A better choice for Black is to take the knight (23. ..Bxf2). 24.e6!+- fxe6 25.fxe6 Bc8 26.Nd3 Bf6 27.Rxf6! An exchange sac that cripples Black, who is cramped with his kingside vulnerable. gxf6 28.Nf4 28.e7 Bd7 29.Nf4 f5 30.g5 c5 31.Nd5+- 28...Rd8 29.Re2 Rd1 30.Bh4 c5 31.Bxf6 Kc6 32.e7 Bd7 33.g5 Be8 34.Ne6 Bh5 35.Rf2 Bg6 36.h4 Kd7 37.Nf4 37.Nf8+ Ke8 38.Re2 Bd3 39.Re5 Kf7 40.Ne6 Rd2+ 41.Kg3 Re2 42.Kf4 Rxe5 43.Kxe5 Bg6 44.Nxc7 Rc8 45.Nb5 Rc6 46.Kd5 Re6 47.Nd6+ Rxd6+ 48.Kxd6 Ke8 49.Kc7 Bf7 50.a4 Bb3 51.Kb7 Bxa4 52.Kxa7 b5 53.Kb6 c4 54.h5+- 37...Bb1 38.a3 Rg8 39.Ng2?! Re8?! 39...Bd3 40.Ne3 Re1 41.Nd5 c4= 40.Ne3 Rd3 41.Re2 Ke6 42.Kg3 Kf7 43.Kf4 h6 44.Re1 hxg5+ 45.hxg5 Ba2 46.Ng4 Rh3 47.Ne5+ Ke6 48.Kg4 Rh7 49.Nf3+ Kf7 50.Kf5 Kg8 51.g6 Rh5+ 52.Kg4 Rh6 53.Nh4 Bf7 54.gxf7+ Kxf7 55.Bg5 A sweet finish to a savory game, like having coffee and halva for dessert after a main course of Imam Bayildi. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Levon Aronian2752Sergey Karjakin27481–02019C67GCT Croatia6.5

Alexei Shirov shows on this DVD how White can develop pressure and seize the initiative with 5.Re1 against the Berlin Wall.


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Alexey was the 1989 U.S. Women's Chess Champion and is a Woman International Master. She earned her bachelor’s degree in History at the University of Puget Sound and her doctoral degree in Education at The University of California, Los Angeles. She has been a Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Studies at UT Dallas since 1999 and is a prolific author.

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