LEVON ARONIAN SHRUGS OFF LOSSES TO TRIUMPH AT TATA STEEL WIJK AAN ZEE
Leonard Barden
guardian.co.uk,
Friday 3 February 2012 13.59 GMT
3239 F El Debs v M Vachier-Lagrave, Tradewise Gibraltar 2012. White
(to move) is a bishop down, so how did he defeat France?s No1
grandmaster? Photograph: Graphic Levon Aronian shrugged off an
early loss to the world No1 Magnus Carlsen and a late defeat by a
tail-ender to win first prize at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee this week
with impressive authority. The Armenian world No2’s 9/13 total was a
point clear of Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, and the Italian 19-year-old
Fabiano Caruana who shared second prize.
The elite events which make up the chess equivalent of a Grand Slam
include Moscow’s Tal Memorial and the London Classic as well as Wijk.
Aronian was subdued in London, but he tied first with Carlsen in
Moscow and his overall rating is closing in on the Norwegian’s.
Aged 29 and at the height of his powers, Aronian would have been a
good bet to capture Vishy Anand’s official world title this spring had
he not frozen with nerves and a bug at last year’s candidates matches.
He has a rich and imaginative style of play which makes a bigger
impression on experts than Carlsen’s marathon grinds. It is not an
exact parallel, but the difference between them is akin to Boris
Spassky and Tigran Petrosian in the world title matches of the 1960s.
Aronian’s best win at Wijk was an all-round tour de force which showed
his depth of preparation and his strategic and tactical flair. His
Dutch teenage opponent was prepared for the opening, but failed to
grasp the strength of Black’s 13…Rxf3 sacrifice. Black’s ensuing
attack steadily gained momentum until its imaginative climax 41…Ne1!
and 42…Qf4+! when if 43 Nxf4 Rxe1 mate.
A Giri v L Aronian
1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Be7 4 Nf3 Nf6 5 Bf4 O-O 6 e3 Nbd7 7 Be2 dxc4 8
O-O Nb6 9 Qc2 Nh5!? 10 Be5 f6 11 Ng5 fxg5 12 Bxh5 Bd7 13 Bf3 Rxf3!? 14
gxf3 Bd6 15 Qe4 Bc6 16 Qg4 Qe7 17 Bxd6 cxd6 18 Ne4 h6 19 Qg3 d5 20
Nc3 Rf8 21 Ne2 Rf5 22 Kg2 Nd7 23 Rh1 Nf8 24 h4 Ng6 25 f4 Nxh4+ 26 Kf1
Qb4 27 Rb1 Be8 28 Nc3 Qe7 29 b4 Rf8 30 Rb2 Bg6 31 Ke1 Bd3 32 fxg5 Nf3+
33 Kd1 hxg5 34 Qh3 Qf6 35 Kc1 Bg6 36 a4 Rd8 37 Ne2 e5 38 Qg4 exd4 39
exd4 Re8 40 Qd7 c3 41 Ra2 Ne1! 42 Rxe1 Qf4+! 43 Kd1 Qe4 0-1 .
Giri had impressed when winning at Reggio a few weeks earlier but
the17-year-old lost five games in a row at Wijk and ended last.
Caruana, in contrast, made his break-through into the top 10, and is
the first top flight grandmaster ever from Italy.
China’s Hou Yifan, 17, played the tournament of her life at Tradewise
Gibraltar which ended on Thursday. She defeated several elite GMs,
shared first prize on 8/10 with Nigel Short won won their play-off,
and beat the all-time No1 woman Judit Polgar.
Hou Yigan v J Polgar
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nc6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be2 Nge7 7 Bf4 Ng6
8 Nxc6 bxc6 9 Bd6 Bxd6 10 Qxd6 Qe7 11 O-O-O Qxd6 12 Rxd6 Ke7 13 Rhd1
Nf4 14 Bf3 Rb8 15 R6d2 g5 16 Na4 d5 17 g3 Ng6 18 Re1 Kf6 19 Bh5 Rb4
20 Nc3 d4? 21 e5+! Nxe5 22 Ne4+ Ke7 23 Nxg5 h6? 24 Nxe6! Bxe6 25 Rxe5
Rd8 26 f4 Rb5 27 Rde2 Kf6 28 Bf3 c5 29 a4 Rb4 30 Rxc5 Rxa4 31 b3 Rb4
32 Be4 Bg4 33 Re1 Rd6 34 Bd3 Bd7 35 Ree5 Be6 36 Kd2 Rbb6 37 Ra5 Rbc6
38 Ra4 Rb6 39 Re4 Bf5 40 Rexd4 Re6 41 Bc4 Rec6 42 Ra5 Bc8 43 Bd3 Be6
44 Rd8 Bc8 45 Rad5 Be6 46 Rh5 Kg7 47 f5 1-0.
3239 Rxb7! Nxb7 2 Bxc6+ Kf8 3 Rd7 Qxd7 4 Qxd7 Rxa7 5 Qe8 mate.