Why Aronian Plays the English

1.c4

In recent times I have taken a liking to this move. After all, in the main openings too much is already known, and contortions such as 1.d4 and, after any move, 2. Bf4 do not yet attract me. It only remains to rely on the openings of my early youth - the English and the Reti.

-- GM Levon Aronian, New In Chess 2016 #4

(From the introduction to Aronian's annotations to Aronian-Carlsen, Stavanger 2016 round 8)

[Event "Norway Chess 4th"] [Site "Stavanger"] [Date "2016.04.28"] [Round "8"] [White "Aronian, Levon"] [Black "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A11"] [WhiteElo "2784"] [BlackElo "2851"] [PlyCount "61"] [EventDate "2016.04.19"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "NOR"] [EventCategory "21"] [SourceTitle "CBM 172"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2016.05.12"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2016.05.12"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 c6 3. Bg2 d5 4. Nf3 g6 5. b3 Bg7 6. Bb2 O-O 7. O-O dxc4 8. bxc4 c5 9. d3 Nc6 10. Ne5 Na5 11. Qc1 Qc7 12. Nd2 Ne8 13. f4 Nd6 14. Bc3 Rb8 15. Qa3 b6 16. Bxa5 bxa5 17. Nb3 Nb7 18. Bxb7 Qxb7 19. Nxc5 Qc7 20. d4 Rd8 21. Rfd1 f6 22. Nf3 e5 23. fxe5 fxe5 24. Nxe5 Bxe5 25. dxe5 Rxd1+ 26. Rxd1 Qxe5 27. Rd8+ Kf7 28. Qf3+ Bf5 29. Rxb8 Qxb8 30. g4 Qb4 31. Nd3 1-0