Shanghai Masters 2010 (Blitz Playoff)
Kramnik through to Bilbao after beating Aronian
IM Malcolm Pein - Tuesday 14th September 2010
Vladimir Kramnik edged past Levon Aronian after beating him in a blitz playoff in Shanghai. Malcolm Pein reports.
The Shanghai Masters ended in a Blitz play off for second place. Vladimir Kramnik prevailed over Levon Aronian to qualify, with Alexei Shirov, for the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao next month. Kramnik defeated the Aronian in the fifth round to draw level with him and the sixth round saw two quiet draws.
Kramnik dominated the two-game blitz match, played with 4 minutes on the clock and a 2 second increment. He won game one but lost the second, on time, in a winning position. Kramnik chose to play black in the Armageddon Game with 4 minutes for all his moves to Aronian's 5. A draw was as good as a win for Kramnik, yet he sacrificed a piece for the attack and won the game.
Here is some fine endgame technique that won the crucial game against Aronian.
Vladimir Kramnik
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Levon Aronian
Position after 63.Bb3
Kramnik could play his rook to b2 and take on a2 but after Rxa2 Bxa2 Kxa2 Kc2 trapping the black king he cannot win. The white king must be pushed back.
63...Rc7+ 64.Kd3 Kb2! 65.Kd2
(65.Be6 Re7 66.Bg8 Rd7+ 67.Ke4 Kc3 68.Bb3 Re7+ 69.Kd5 Rb7 wins)
65...Rd7+ 66.Ke3 Kc3 67.Bg8 Re7+ 68.Kf2 Kd2 69.Kf3 Kd3 70.Kf2 Re2+ 71.Kf3 Re8 0-1
In view of 71...Re8 72.Bb3 Rf8+ 73.Kg2 Kd2 74.Kg3 Kc1 75.Kg2 Kb1 76.Kg3 Rb8 77.Bd5 Rb2 and Black can safely take on a2 as the white king is so far away.
Vladimir Kramnik
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Levon Aronian
Position after 71...Re8
Bent Larsen, whose death was announced at the weekend defeated all the post war world champions except for Garry Kasparov during his career.
Bent Larsen - T Petrosian
Piatigorsky Cup Santa Monica 1966
Accelerated Dragon
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Be3 Bg7 6.c4 Nf6 7.Nc3 Ng4 8.Qxg4 Nxd4 9.Qd1 Ne6 10.Qd2 d6 11.Be2 Bd7 12.0-0 0-0 13.Rad1 Bc6 14.Nd5 Re8 15.f4 Nc7 16.f5 Na6 17.Bg4 Nc5 18.fxg6 hxg6 19.Qf2 Rf8 20.e5 Bxe5 21.Qh4 Bxd5 22.Rxd5 Ne6 23.Rf3 Bf6 24.Qh6 Bg7 25.Qxg6 Nf4 26.Rxf4 fxg6 27.Be6+ Rf7 28.Rxf7 Kh8 29.Rg5 b5 30.Rg3 1-0
