Grenke Chess Classic
4th Grenke Chess Classic Karlsruhe, Germany April 13-22, 2017
Final Standings (everybody is a GM)
1 Levon Aronian ARM 2774, 5.5/7
2-3 Magnus Carlsen NOR 2838, Fabiano Caruana USA 2817, 4.0/7
4-6 Hou Yifan CHN 2649, Maxime Vachier Lagrave FRA 2803, Arkadij Naiditsch AZE 2702, 3.5/7
7-8 Georg Meier GER 2621, Matthias Bluebaum GER 2634, 2.0/7
Average ELO 2730 — Category 20 Time Control: 100 minutes for the 1st 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes playto-finish with 30 seconds added after every move starting move 1
GM Levon Aronian won the 4th Grenke Chess Classic in Germany ahead of the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen. This was a pretty short tournament, so when the Armenian GM raced to 4 straight wins starting round 3 he had already clinched the tournament victory one round before the end. Magnus Carlsen finished with 1 win and 6 draws and was a distant second.
For some reason many people have already written off Levon Aronian when they talk about the world chess championship. It seems that they have all forgotten that Aronian was ranked no. 2 in the world behind Magnus from January 2012 up to the time Fabiano Caruana displaced him in October 2014.
GM Levon Aronian was born Oct. 6, 1982, making him 34 years old now. Do you remember that he won the Chess World Cup in 2005? Let us dwell on this for a moment.
The FIDE KO format was started in Groningen 1998 where 64 players gather in a giant match tournament, meet each other in two-game matches and keep on going until one player is left standing, and this player is declared world champion. In 1998 the winner was Anatoly Karpov. The next year, 1999 Las Vegas, the format was expanded to 128 players and Alexander Khalifman won. In 2000 it was Viswanathan Anand, 2002 Ruslan Ponomariov, and then 2004 Rustam Kasimdzhanov.
In 2005 it was decided that the KO Championship would be renamed “FIDE World Cup” and the winner, instead of being declared world champion, would simply be seeded into a Candidates’ tournament, the winner of which will face the defending world champion. This 2005 KO tournament was the one that Levon Aronian won — if the old rules were still in force at the time then Aronian would have been declared World Champion. Tough luck.
Anyway, he led the Armenian national team to the Gold medals in the 2006 ( Turin), 2008 ( Dresden) and 2012 (Istanbul) Chess Olympics and at the World Team Chess Championship in Ningbo 2011. All these great performances has elevated him to celebrity status in his home country and Levon Aronian was named the best sportsman of Armenia in 2005 and Honoured Master of Sport in 2009. I had always considered Aronian a player of genius and great creativity. The following game made quite an impact, especially since I was following the game live over the Internet Chess Club.
Shirov, Alexei (2720) — Aronian, Levon (2741) [C89]
Tal Memorial Moscow RUS ( 4), 10.11.2006 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0– 0 8. c3 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d4 Bd6 13. Re1 Qh4 14. g3 Qh3 15. Re4 g5 16. Qf1 Qh5 17. Nd2 Bf5 18. f3!? Nf6 19. a4 Nxe4 20. Nxe4 Qg6 21. Nxd6 Qxd6 22. Bxg5 Qg6 23. Qc1 Bd3 24. axb5 axb5 25. Rxa8 Rxa8 26. Kf2 Bc4! 27.Bxc4
Forced. 27.Bc2 Qe6! the queen penetrates on either e2 or h3.
27...bxc4 28.g4 Re8 29.Bf4 Qd3 30. Kg3 Qe2 31. Qb1 Qe1+ 32. Qxe1 Rxe1 33.Bd6 Rg1+ 34.Kf2 Rb1 35.Ba3 Kg7 36.Kg3 Kg6 37.h3 h5 38.Kh4 Rg1! 39.Bc5 Rg2 40.Ba3 f6 41.gxh5+ Kf5 42.f4 Rg8
Not 42... Kxf4? 43. h6 Rg8 44. Kh5 Rg5+ 45.Kh4 Rg8 46.Kh5 forces a draw by repetition. The king cannot come down because 46... Kf5?? 47. h7 Rh8 48.Kh6 loses.
43.Bd6 Ke6!!
On the Internet Chess Club everyone ( including GMs and IMs) was saying that the forced continuation now is 43. h6 Kxd6 44. Kh5 which leads to a draw. Is it?
44.h6 Kxd6 45.Kh5 f5!!
What!? Why not the indicated 45... Ke6 46.h7 Rb8 47.Kg6 f5 48.Kg7 Rb7+ 49.Kg8 Rb8+ 50.Kg7 Rb7+ 51.Kh6 Rb8 followed by a handshake?
46. h7 Rh8 47. Kg6 Ke7 48. Kg7 Ke8!!
Only now does the truth sink in. If White takes the rook, Aronian plays ... Kf8 to bottle up the enemy king, and shuttles it between f7 and f8 until White runs out of moves. He is then forced to move his b- pawn which allows Black to capture it and queen.
49.Kg6 Kf8 50.h4 Ke7 51.Kg7 Ke8! 52.Kg6 Kf8 53.h5 Ke7 54.Kg7 Ke8 55.Kg6 Kf8 56.h6 Ke8 57.Kf6 Rxh7 58.Kg6 Rf7! 0–1
Shirov resigned. 58... Rf7 59. h7 Rf8 60.Kg7 Rh8! is the same trick over again.
The only thing missing with Aronian is the killer instinct to push hard in every game and sometimes he fades away when the stakes are high. If he continues playing like he did here in Grenke then we can expect his ranking to shoot up again and for him to contend for Magnus Carlsen’s world championship title, something which he is capable of wresting.
Aronian, Levon ( 2774) — Naiditsch, Arkadij (2702) [A13] 4th Grenke Chess Classic 2017 Karlsruhe (5.2), 20.04.2017
1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.0–0 Nbd7 6.Qc2 c5 7.Na3 Nd5 8.Nxc4 b5 9.Ne3
This is a novelty. The idea behind it apparently is that 9... Nxe3 10. fxe3! Bb7 11.Ne5! introduces an early attack against Black’s undeveloped King.
9...Bb7
Upon meeting a novelty the prudent course is to avoid complications, play normal developing moves and then take a look at the move again later in your hotel room. However, now White has an easy game.
10.Nxd5 Bxd5
If 10... exd5 11. Nh4 Black has some difficulties completing his development. Also take note that White has the immediate threat of Qb3.
11.e4 Bb7 12.d4
The only advantage White has is that his pieces are better developed. It is indicative of Aronian’s great skill that he is able to push this home.
12...cxd4 13.Nxd4 Rc8 14.Qe2 a6 15.Rd1
White has threats of Bg2–h3xe6 in the air.
15...Bc5 16.Nb3 Be7
The position is not as simple as it might look. The “obvious” 16...0–0 for example loses material to 17.Nxc5 Rxc5 18.Qd3 Bc6 19.Be3.
17.Rd3! Qc7
Black still cannot castle: 17...0– 0 18.Qd1! (the point behind Rd3) 18...Bc6 (18...Rc7 19.Bf4 e5 20.Bxe5) 19.Nd4 Ba8 20.Nxe6!
18.Bf4 Ne5?
Better was 18... Qb6 but even then 19. Qd1 Nf6 20. Be3 Qc7 21. Rc1 Qb8 22.Nc5 keeps up the pressure.
19.Rc3 Qb8 20.Qh5 Bd6
[20...Bf6 21.Rxc8+ Bxc8 22.Rc1 Black is going to lose material, for example 22...0–0 23.Rc5 g6 24.Bxe5!]
21. Rxc8+! Bxc8 22. Rd1 Bc7 23.Na5!
This knight is immune to capture because then White has Bxe5 followed by Bxg7.
23...Bd7
Black did not play 23...0–0 because of 24.Bxe5 Bxe5 25.Nc6 Qc7 26.Nxe5 there is a sting at the end of the scorpion’s tail with 26...g6! which recovers the piece but then 27. Nxg6 hxg6 28. Qg5 leaves White a healthy pawn up and Black still has not completed his development.
24. Bxe5 Bxe5 25. Rxd7! Kxd7 26.Qxf7+ Kd6 27.Bh3 Re8
In the postgame interview Aronian revealed that he originally intended to play 28. f4 but upon reaching this position could not find a forced win after 28... Bxb2. So he goes another way.
28.Nb7+ Kc6 29.b4! Rf8 30.Qe7?
The wrong move order which could have been punished by 30... Bc7!. White could have avoided this possibility by inverting his moves — 30.Na5+ before Qe7.
30...Bd6? 31.Na5+ Kb6 32.Qxe6 Re8 33. Qd7 Bxb4 34. Nc6 Qd6 35.Qxe8 Qxc6 36.Qb8+ Qb7 37.Qxb7+ Kxb7 38.f4
Aronian revealed after the game that he was not sure if his position is won but “I would say this is more a win than a draw.”
38... Kc6 39. Kf2 a5 40. Kf3 a4 41. Bf5 h6 42. Bg6 Kd7 43. e5 Bc5 44. Bd3 Kc6 45. Bc2 Kd5 46. Be4+ Kc4 47. Bc6 Bg1 48. h4 Kc5 49. Be8 Bd4 50. h5! Bc3 51. Ke4 Be1 52. g4 Bd2 53.Kf5 a3 54.g5 b4 55.Ba4 Kd5 56. gxh6 gxh6 57. Bb3+ Kc5 58. Ke4 1–0
Aronian’s technique was flawless. By the way, the game also gave me pleasure in another not so honorable way. In “Best Attacking Games of 20122015” Naiditsch described Wesley So as follows:
“I have to say that to play against Wesley is anything but pleasant. He bangs the clock, coughs nonstop and plays the moves instantly without writing the move of the opponent down. Well, a lot of young players behave very badly at the board these days and I am sure that the incident of Wesley So during the US Championship where he got a 0 for writing strange things on his scoresheet will not be the last time he breaks the ethics and rules of chess.”
I was rendered speechless by this. Suffice it to say that the above pasting by Aronian made me really happy.