74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2012 (10)
Aronian moves ahead of Tata Steel after wins in Rounds 9 and 10
IM Malcolm Pein - Friday 27th January 2012
IM Malcolm Pein looks at Levon Aronian's win against Anish Giri that leaves him a point clear of the field with 3 rounds to go of the 74th Tata Steel tournament.
Anish Giri at the start of his game against Levon Aronian. Photo © Michiel Abeln. | http://www.chess.co.uk/twic
Levon Aronian never got going at the London Chess Classic but he is more than making up for it at the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee. In rounds nine and ten, Aronian put the younger generation in their place, defeating Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri as Magnus Carlsen faltered. Carlsen was punished for some optimistic play against Sergei Karjakin and, after a draw against Hikaru Nakamura he is 1.5 points behind Aronian who even has an outside chance of supplanting him as world number one. Vassily Ivanchuk is now second after defeating back marker David Navara with the Modern Benoni.
Leaders: Aronian 7.5/10, Ivanchuk 6.5; Radjabov, Carlsen 6, Caruana, Nakamura 5.5.
Giri took a chance by playing 8.0-0 which was introduced by Aronian. The world number two had analysed the variation in depth and had found the exchange sacrifice Rxf3 with his trainer Levon Pashikian. They decided that the computers over-estimated White's chances, which they sometimes do after material is sacrificed.
A Giri - L Aronian
Queen's Gambit
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 Nbd7 7.Be2 dxc4 8.0-0 Nb6 9.Qc2 Nh5
"Looked a bit risky to me when I was preparing. I'm not sure it's good, it doesn't look good." - Giri
10.Be5 f6 11.Ng5 fxg5 12.Bxh5 Bd7 13.Bf3
Levon Aronian
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Anish Giri
Position after 13.Bf3
13...Rxf3! 14.gxf3 Bd6 15.Qe4 Bc6 16.Qg4 Qe7 17.Bxd6 cxd6 18.Ne4
Encouraging d6-d5 which blocks the bishop but Black gains space and the bishop emerges later
18...h6 19.Qg3 d5! 20.Nc3 Rf8 21.Ne2 Rf5!
White cannot open files for his rooks, a sure sign Black has good compensation
22.Kg2
(22.f4 gxf4 and White must take with the pawn)
22...Nd7!
Heading for h4
23.Rh1 Nf8 24.h4?! Ng6 25.f4 Nxh4+ 26.Kf1 Qb4 27.Rb1 Be828.Nc3 Qe7 29.b4 Rf8 30.Rb2 Bg6 31.Ke1 Bd3 !
White is strategically lost and Aronian finds some brilliant tactics
32.fxg5 Nf3+ 33.Kd1 hxg5 34.Qh3 Qf6 35.Kc1 Bg6 36.a4 Rd8!
Now Black can open lines on the nomadic white king
37.Ne2 e5 38.Qg4 exd4 39.exd4
[39.Nxd4 Ne5]
39...Re8 40.Qd7 c3 41.Ra2
(41.Nxc3 Qf4+ 42.Kd1 Qxd4+ 43.Kc1 Qxc3+ 44.Kd1 Re1+)
41...Ne1!! 42.Rxe1 Qf4+! 43.Kd1
(43.Nxf4 Rxe1#)
43...Qe4 0-1
Levon Aronian
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Anish Giri
Final position after 43...Qe4
Craig Hanley upset Emil Sutovsky in the first round of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival. Sutovsky has sacrificed a rook and your correspondent arrived and assumed, wrongly, that 23.Qf5+ Qxf5 24.gxf5+ Kh4 25.g3+ Kh3 26.Nf2# was the idea. What had I missed?
Craig Hanley
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Emil Sutovsky
Position after 22...Qe5
the game ended
23.Ne2 Qxe4 24.e7 Rhe8 25.Nd4 Rxe7 26.Rxe7 Qxe7 27.Qd3+ Kf7 28.Qc4+ Kg6 29.Qd3+ Kf7 30.Qc4+ Kf8 31.Ne6+ Ke8 32.g3 Nf6 33.Qxc6+ Kf7 0-1
