CHESS: In Memoriam Arianne Caoili, Filipina Chess Master, Is Dead at 33
(AUSTRALIA OUT) Arianne Caoili, 15 years old, at the Chess Championships at the Reserve Bank of Australia, 1 July 2002 THE AGE Picture by PAUL HARRIS (Photo by Fairfax Media via Getty Images/Fairfax Media via Getty Images via Getty Images)
.
Arianne Caoili, a chess master and a prominent figure both in the chess world and in Armenia, where she lived, died Monday in Yerevan, the country’s capital. She was 33.
Her husband, Levon Aronian, a grandmaster ranked No. 7 in the world, announced her death on Twitter. Caoili died two weeks after being seriously injured in a car crash.
In the insular world of chess, Caoili (pronounced kay-OH-lee), who had done some modeling when she young, stood out — not only for her talents as a player but also for the glamour she brought to what is often thought of as an unglamorous game.
After her death, condolences poured in from every top chess player, including Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, and Garry Kasparov, the former world champion.
Ads by: Memento Maxima Digital Marketing
@ [email protected]
– SPACE RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT
Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s prime minister, also offered condolences on his website. “Her memory,” he wrote, “will remain bright in the hearts of the Armenian people.”
Caoili’s first major international victory was in 2000, when she won the Asian Girls Under-16 Championship tournament in Bagac, the Philippines, on her 14th birthday. She went on to win the London Chess Classic Women’s Invitational in 2009 and, that same year, the Oceania Women’s Zonal, a qualifier for the world championship.
She played seven times in the Chess Olympiad, the game’s preeminent international team event. She represented her native Philippines in 1998 and 2000 and, after moving, represented Australia in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012. She was awarded the title women’s international master by the World Chess Federation, the game’s governing body.
She had done some modeling while living in Australia and in 2006 was a contestant on the Australian version of “Dancing With the Stars.” She and her partner, dancer and choreographer Carmelo Pizzino, finished second.
She was fluent in several languages and had studied for a Ph.D. in economics.
Ads by: Memento Maxima Digital Marketing
@ [email protected]
– SPACE RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT
In recent years, she had concentrated on business more than on competing. When she was 29 she started Champord, a free weekly newspaper for commuters in Yerevan; the same year, she founded a consultancy firm called Akron, which focused on public policy, economics and sovereign wealth funds.
Caoili was also known for her charity work. In 2018, she raised $6,100 for children’s education by riding a bicycle nearly 1,900 kilometers (about 1,180 miles) over two weeks from Ayas, Turkey, to Agarak, a village on the Armenian-Iranian border.
Arianne Bo Caoili was born on Dec. 22, 1986, in Manila, the second daughter of a Dutch mother and a Filipino father who was a minister. In 1989 the family moved to Australia, where she learned to play chess at age 6.
Ads by: Memento Maxima Digital Marketing
@ [email protected]
– SPACE RESERVE FOR YOUR ADVERTISEMENT
She and Aronian met in 1996 at the World Youth Chess Championship in Las Palmas, Spain; they married in 2017 in Armenia, where she had moved in 2013. Among the 300 guests at their wedding was Serzh Sargsyan, then the president of Armenia.
Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2020 The New York Times Company
.
RELATED STORY:
.
Arianne Caoili
| Arianne Caoili | |
|---|---|
Caoili in 2008
|
|
| Full name | Arianne Bo Caoili |
| Country | Philippines (before 2004) Australia (after 2004) |
| Born | 22 December 1986 Manila, Philippines |
| Died | 30 March 2020 (aged 33) Yerevan, Armenia |
| Title | Woman International Master (2001) |
| Peak rating | 2309 (October 2002) |
.jpg)
Caoili (left) stomping grapes during the 3rd Annual Wine Festival in Artsakh (2016)
Arianne Bo Caoili[1] (/ˈæriːɔːn kaʊˈiːliː/;[2] 22 December 1986 – 30 March 2020) was a Filipino-Australian chess player. She held the FIDE title of Woman International Master, won the Oceania women’s chess championship in 2009 and competed in seven Women’s Chess Olympiads. Outside of chess, she was a financial consultant,[3] and served as advisor to Armenian prime minister Karen Karapetyan.[4]
.
Chess
Born in Manila, Philippines, Caoili began playing chess at six years old. On 22 December 2000, she won the Asian girls under 16 championship in Bagac, Philippines.[5] The following year, she scored 5½/9 points in the strong Conca Della Presolana tournament in Italy.[6] Also in 2001, she was awarded the Woman FIDE Master and Woman International Master titles by FIDE. In the FIDE rating list of October 2002, Caoili achieved her peak rating of 2309.[7]
In 2004 Caoili transferred chess federations to represent Australia.[8] In 2009, she won the London Chess Classic Women’s Invitational tournament with a score of 8/9, two points ahead of the runner-up.[1] In the same year, Caoili won the Oceania Women’s Zonal Championship[9] and as a result qualified to play in the Women’s World Championship 2010. However, she did not participate in this competition.[10]
Caoili played for the Philippines in the Women’s Chess Olympiad in 1998 and 2000. She represented Australia in the same competition in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012.[11]
.
Personal life
From 2008, Caoili was in a relationship with one of the world’s top chess grandmasters, Levon Aronian.[14][15] They first met in 1996, at the World Youth Chess Championships in Las Palmas, and became friends in 2006, being introduced by their mutual friend Alex Wohl.[16] Aronian and Caoili became officially engaged in 2015[15] and were married on 30 September 2017 at the 13th-century Saghmosavank Monastery, with then Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his wife Rita Sargsyan in attendance.[17][18]
She spoke English & Tagalog fluently, and had studied for a Ph.D. at a German university on “Russian foreign policy, especially its economic and business relations with Armenia on a state and individual level”. She worked as a consultant for a global consultancy firm.[16] From 2013 until her death in 2020, Caoili lived and worked in Armenia.[19]
Death
Caoili died on 30 March 2020 from injuries sustained following a car crash in Yerevan, Armenia, two weeks previously.[20][21][22
.
Levon Aronian
| Levon Aronian | |
|---|---|
Aronian at the 2011 European Team Chess Championships in Athens
|
|
| Full name | Levon Grigori Aronian |
| Country | Armenia Germany (2003−2004)[1][2] |
| Born | 6 October 1982 Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Title | Grandmaster (2000) |
| FIDE rating | 2773 (April 2020) |
| Peak rating | 2830 (March 2014) |
| Ranking | No. 8 (August 2019) |
| Peak ranking | No. 2 (January 2012) |
| Available in | Armenian, English, Russian, Spanish |
|---|---|
| URL | www |
| Launched | 11 February 2015 |
Levon Grigori Aronian (Armenian: Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան, romanized: Levon Grigori Aronyan; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2000. On the March 2014 FIDE rating list, he was ranked number two in the world and had an Elo rating of 2830,[3] making him the fourth highest rated player in history.
Aronian won the FIDE World Cup in 2005 and 2017. He led the Armenian national team to the gold medals in the Chess Olympiads of 2006 (Turin), 2008 (Dresden) and 2012 (Istanbul)[4] and at the World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo 2011. He won the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, qualifying him for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012, where he was knocked out in the first round. He was also world champion in Chess960 in 2006 and 2007, in rapid chess in 2009, and in blitz chess in 2010.
Aronian has been the leading Armenian chess player since the early 2000s.[5] His popularity in Armenia has led to him being called a celebrity[6] and a hero.[7] He was named the best sportsman of Armenia in 2005[8] and was awarded the title of Honoured Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia in 2009. In 2012 he was awarded the Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots.[9] In 2016, CNN called Aronian the “David Beckham of chess”.[10] As of November 2019, Levon Aronian is the No. 1 ranked player in Armenia and the No. 7 in the world, with a FIDE rating of 2772.
.
Personal life
Levon’s mother, Seda Aronova, published a book about her son on 22 November 2013, recounting her memories of his childhood and accomplishments.[116]
He is a jazz fan. His favorite musician is John Coltrane.[117] His favorite classical composers include Bach, Bruckner, Mahler, Shostakovich.[118]
Levon started dating Australian Woman International Master Arianne Caoili in 2008.[119][120][121] The two announced their engagement in February 2015[119] and got married on 30 September 2017 in Yerevan.[122] They had first met at the 1996 World Youth Chess Championships in Las Palmas and began a friendship in 2006, when their mutual friend International Master Alex Wohl reintroduced them in Berlin.[123] On 30 March 2020, Aronian revealed on his Twitter account that his wife had died.[124]The Philippines-born former model had succumbed to serious injuries sustained two weeks earlier in a car crash.[125]
.
