[13] Aronian was born on 6 October 1982 in Yerevan, Armenia (then part of the Soviet Union), to Seda Avagyan, an Armenian mining engineer,[14] and Grigory Leontievich Aronov,[15] a Russian Jewish physicist[16] from the Vitebsk Region, Belarus.

An early sign of his ability came when he won the 1994 World Youth Chess Championship (under-12) in Szeged with 8/9, ahead of future luminaries Étienne Bacrot, Ruslan Ponomariov, Francisco Vallejo Pons, and Alexander Grischuk.

[21] In 2001, Aronian scored seven out of nine in the Cappelle-la-Grande Open, half a point behind the joint winners Einar Gausel and Vladimir Chuchelov.

[23] In the same year he became World Junior Champion, scoring 10/13 and finishing ahead of Surya Ganguly, Artyom Timofeev, Luke McShane, Bu Xiangzhi, Pentala Harikrishna, and others.

[27] In 2005, he was part of a five-way tie for first place at the Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar with Zahar Efimenko, Kiril Georgiev, Alexei Shirov and Emil Sutovsky.

[citation needed] In December he beat Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the final round to win the World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

In January 2007, Aronian shared first place at the category 19 Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee along with Veselin Topalov and Radjabov.

[37] In March 2008, he won the Melody Amber Blindfold/Rapid tournament held in Nice, France, 2½ points ahead of the nearest competitors.

[39][40] At the Second FIDE Grand Prix in Sochi, Aronian defeated Alexander Grischuk in the final and finished at 8½/13 and a performance rating of 2816.

[42] Aronian won the Fourth FIDE Grand Prix in April 2009 with a score of 8½/13, one point ahead of Peter Leko and fellow Armenian Vladimir Akopian.

[44] After winning the Bilbao Chess Masters Final in September 2009,[45] his FIDE rating was just four points behind World Champion Viswanathan Anand.

In August 2010, he unsuccessfully defended the World Rapid Chess title, losing to eventual champion Gata Kamsky.

[53] In January 2012, Aronian competed in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee; the field included world No.

[57] In December 2012, Aronian competed in the London Chess Classic, coming in sixth place with one win, 5 draws and 2 losses.

[59] In the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in January, Aronian finished second with five wins, one loss and seven draws, in second place behind Carlsen.

[68] On 1 September 2015, he won the 3rd Sinquefield Cup, held in Saint Louis Missouri, US, with a +3 score and wins over Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Wesley So.

[73] On 16 June 2017, Aronian won the fifth edition of the Norway Chess Tournament (with a PR of 2918, and a full point ahead of nearest rivals), beating Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin.

[79] In December 2017, Aronian took fifth place in the World Blitz Chess Championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a score of 14/21 including wins over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and defending champion Sergey Karjakin.

[80]In January 2018, Aronian won the 16th Annual Gibraltar Chess Festival on tiebreaks, beating runner-up Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2½–1½, with an overall record of 7½/10.

In February 2021, Aronian announced in a press release from the Saint Louis Chess Club that he would be switching federations from Armenia to the United States of America[89] on the basis, among other things, of "the state's absolute indifference towards Armenian chess" and the ongoing war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

[92] On July 4, Aronian won the Goldmoney Asian Rapid chess tournament, beating Vladislav Artemiev in the finals 2–0.

From 26–28 December 2021, Aronian participated in the 2021 FIDE World Rapid Championship, where he ended up in seventh place with 9/13 points after tiebreaks.

In February 2023 he won the WR Chess Masters in Düsseldorf after winning playoffs against Ian Nepomniachtchi and Dommaraju Gukesh.

[95] During June-July 2023, he was a part of the team Triveni Continental Kings, winning the inaugural Global Chess League in Dubai.

[99] He is the sixth player to cross the 2800 rating mark, after Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, and Magnus Carlsen.

"[107] In 2011, Boris Gelfand described Aronian as "the most striking player around, with the highest creative level, in terms both of openings and original ideas in the middlegame.

"[109] In 2012, Sergey Karjakin, speaking about Aronian's style, made an analogy with football and compared him with Lionel Messi.

[113] Levon's mother, Seda Aronova, published a book about her son on 22 November 2013, recounting her memories of his childhood and accomplishments.

[120] 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] Aronian married Anita Ayvazyan, an international literature major at the American University of Armenia, after Caoili's death.