Author: Kanayan Tamar

TURKISH FM THANKS FRENCH MPS AND SENATORS REJECTING ARMENIAN BILL

Anadolu Agency
Feb 1 2012
Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu thanked French
parliamentarians and senators who appealed the law on Armenian
allegations at French Constitutional Council.

Davutoglu, who is currently holding meetings in Belgrade, told AA
on Tuesday that the parliamentarians and senators claimed freedom of
thought, and he wished Turkish-French friendship would win in the end.

Now what we have to do is to wait for the decision of French
Constitutional Council, he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, French senators appealed the law penalizing denial
of the Armenian allegations on the Ottoman era incidents of 1915 that
was adopted at the French Senate.

65 MPs and 72 senators signed to appeal the law at the French
Constitutional Council.

The council is expected to make public its decision within a month.

The French Parliament and Senate enacted the bill last week.

The law penalizes denial of the Armenian allegations with a prison
term of one year and a fine of 45,000 euro.

LA REACTION DE CHRISTOPHE MASSE
Aurelie Ohanian

armenews.com
jeudi 2 fevrier 2012

Reaction de Christophe Masse sur la Saisine du Conseil Constitutionnel
pour tenter de faire annuler le vote de la Loi penalisant la negation
des genocides Rapporteur a l’assemblee nationale de la loi de
penalisation du genocide armenien le 12 octobre 2006

Vice President du CG13 -Conseiller municipal ville de Marseille

Les parlementaires qui viennent de saisir le conseil constitutionnel
pour faire annuler le vote de la loi penalisant le negationnisme
des genocides, tentent de voler une victoire acquise sur le
terrain democratique. Ce qui ressemble desormais a un acharnement
incomprehensible doit cesser.

Le debat entame en 2006 au moment où j’ai rapporte avec succès une
première loi sur cette question, a suffisamment dure. Il a certes ete
riche et passionne mais il a trouve son terme le 23 janvier 2012 par
le vote conforme de la loi au Senat.

Je m’indigne donc contre la pratique de ces parlementaires, qui ayant
perdu sur le terrain des valeurs, espèrent une victoire sur ” tapis
vert “.

Je regrette que le president de la Republique M. Nicolas Sarkozy,
qui avait la possibilite de promulguer cette loi rapidement, ne l’ait
pas fait.

Il a ainsi ouvert la porte, a une manoeuvre procedurière de saisine
constitutionnelle dont il connaissait parfaitement le risque.

Ne l’ayant pas fait, la promulgation de la loi est desormais suspendue
a l’avis du conseil constitutionnel.

Desormais j’invite les sages du CC a respecter le vote de cette loi,
et a ne pas creer un precedent qui pourrait remettre en cause y
compris la loi Gayssot.

J’en appelle a la raison. 2006-2012, 6 ans de tergiversation, ca
suffit !!

Le negationnisme est un delit et pour le punir il faut une loi.

La France ne peut pas impunement laisser fleurir sur son sol une
propagande devastatrice negationniste outrancière et grossière.

Nier un genocide, c’est tuer une deuxième fois, disait Elie Wiesel.

La France s’est honoree le 23 janvier dernier en adoptant cette loi.

La France s’est elevee au dessus des clivages politiques et au dessus
du chantage economique de la Turquie.

Le conseil constitutionnel ne doit pas empecher la promulgation de
cette loi.

ERDOGAN : POUR QUELQUES MILLIERS DE VOTES DU DEVCHIRME
Jean Eckain

armenews.com
jeudi 2 fevrier 2012

Eh bien nous y voila… le mot ” Devchirme” est tombe de la bouche du
premier ministre turc hier dès qu’il a appris de celle du president
francais que ce dernier ferait en sorte qu’un” nouveau texte” soit
depose “tout de suite , en cas de censure de la loi Boyer par les
Sages du Conseil constitutionnel. Pour lui il s’agit “de marcher sur
toutes les valeurs europeennes pour le bien de quelques milliers de
voix du Devchirme ;” (chretiens enrôles dans le corps des Janissaires
sous l’Empire ottoman).

L’exasperation de Monsieur Erdogan est visiblement palpable lorsqu’il
dit que “ce projet de loi qui a ete acceptee par l’Assemblee
nationale francaise et du Senat est inexistant pour nous”. Ajoutant
” Par consequent, afin d’arreter l’arrosage de cette germination de
vigne empoisonnee en France, nous demandons a nos camarades francais
et au public francais de faire entendre leur voix. ”

“Stop”, dit-il “a cette tendance au racisme et a la discrimination
menee par Sarkozy et a l’animosite envers la Turquie. La Turquie est
un grand pays et agira en conformite de cette grandeur.”

Pour lui “la France de l’administration Sarkozy est basee sur le dogme,
les prejuges et le delire. ” Concluant dans Sabah ” la France a besoin
de se liberer de cette mentalite remontant au Moyen-Age.”

EUROPE, LE PROJET CONTRE NATURE DE LA TURQUIE

Le Monde

31 janvier 2012
France

L’adoption par un Senat de gauche de la loi sur le genocide – notamment
armenien – est un cas ponctuel assez remarquable de negation des
frontières partisanes, plutôt rare en France par les temps qui
courent. Mais l’animosite qui preside desormais aux relations
franco-turques, et leurs consequences dommageables previsibles,
possède des racines plus profondes. Elle est aussi vieille que Les
Fourberies de Scapin (“Que diable suis-je alle faire sur cette galère?

“) mais elle est surtout due a l’insistance turque de donner corps
a un projet contre-nature.

Celui de devenir membre a part entière de l’Union europeenne
avec tous ces symboles inenvisageables comme son entree massive au
Parlement europeen et une place de choix a la Commission, l’instance de
gouvernement de l’Union. Les Allemands sont d’accord tout en preferant
nous mettre en avant. Sans faire dans l’anthropomorphisme occidental,
observons que l’Europe est desormais circonscrite. Tant mieux!

Jean-Marie Baurens, Montpellier Lettre parue dans Le Monde du 1er
fevrier

FRANCE-TURQUIE: COMMENT SARKOZY A CREE UN LOBBY TURC

L’Express

31 janvier 2012
France

La communaute installee dans l’Hexagone n’a pu bloquer l’adoption de
la loi reprimant la negation des genocides. Mais, si la question des
massacres de 1915 la divise, elle se rassemble autour de la liberte
d’expression. Et s’organise pour, a l’avenir, faire entendre sa voix.

Ils ont perdu la bataille mais, cette fois-ci, ils sont alles au
combat en rangs serres. En 2001, lors du vote de la reconnaissance du
genocide armenien par le Parlement, ils etaient restes cois. En 2006,
lors d’un premier vote par l’Assemblee nationale d’une penalisation
de la negation du genocide armenien de 1915, seule une infime partie
des Turcs de France – ils seraient de 500 000 a 600 000 dans tout
l’Hexagone – etait descendue dans la rue. Six ans plus tard, la
mobilisation est tout autre. Le 21 janvier, deux jours avant l’adoption
par le Senat d’un texte reprimant “la negation ou la minimisation
outrancière” des genocides reconnus par la loi, de 20.000 a 30.000
manifestants, drapeaux frappes du croissant et tricolores meles,
battaient le pave parisien. Du jamais vu. Et l’activisme des consulats
turcs n’explique pas tout. “Cette fois-ci, nos plaies etaient trop
vives, explique Hikmet Turk, un entrepreneur en bâtiment, porte-parole
du Comite de coordination des associations franco-turques a l’origine
de la protestation. Qu’une loi electoraliste bafoue notre liberte
d’expression, nous les Francais d’origine turque, nous ne pouvons le
tolerer.” La liste des griefs est longue. “Pseudo-genocide, question
chypriote, statut des orthodoxes, notre president Nicolas Sarkozy,
qui s’oppose a l’entree de la Turquie dans l’UE: les medias passent
leur temps a dire du mal des Turcs, denonce Ahmet Ogras, un ingenieur
de 40 ans qui anime l’Union des democrates europeens turcs.

Or une nouvelle generation arrive, mieux eduquee, plus active et
consciente de ses droits citoyens.”

Opposes sur la nature des faits, unis sur les principes

Les Turcs de France restent divises sur la qualification des evenements
de 1915. D’ailleurs dans la manifestation du 21, ce point saillant,
au coeur meme de la loi, etait soigneusement ecarte. “C’est aux
historiens de faire la lumière sur ce qui s’est reellement passe,
esquive Hikmet Turk. Mon arrière-grand-père, que j’ai connu, avait une
autre version que celle avancee par les Armeniens.” “Je ne suis pas
competent: laissons les historiens travailler”, rencherit Ahmet Ogras.

Cette loi electoraliste ne va qu’accentuer le communautarisme et le
nationalisme Coordinateur de l’Assemblee citoyenne des originaires
de Turquie (Acort), Umit Metin n’a pas, lui, rejoint le defile parce
que ses organisateurs “collent trop a l’histoire officielle des
evenements de 1915”. Le 30 janvier, l’Acort organisait dans la mairie
du Xe arrondissement de Paris une projection-debat d’un film-hommage
consacre a Hrant Dink, un journaliste armenien de Turquie assassine en
2007 par un ultranationaliste. Au nom du dialogue entre communautes,
ce dernier, dans un entretien a L’Express, avait juge “imbecile” toute
tentative de penaliser la negation du genocide. Ce dialogue serait
desormais “menace par cette loi electoraliste, qui ne va qu’accentuer
le communautarisme et le nationalisme”, a en croire Umit Metin.

Choc des memoires

C’est aussi au nom de la sauvegarde du debat entre Turcs et Armeniens
que le Congrès des etudiants turcs de France a envoye, avant le
vote, une longue lettre aux parlementaires francais les pressant de
repousser un texte qui aboutirait a “pourfendre litteralement le
dialogue long et sinueux amorce depuis quelques annees au sein de
la societe civile en Turquie”. Sur les bords du Bosphore, après des
decennies de silence, le tabou sur les massacres de 1915 a, en effet,
ete leve par les intellectuels et les medias turcs. “Pour nous,
l’Etat turc doit ouvrir le dialogue, plaide Hakki Unal, etudiant
en sciences politiques a Strasbourg et president du Congrès. Mais
cette loi pousse a un choc des memoires et ne va contribuer qu’a
attiser les extremismes au sein des deux communautes. Me traiter de
negationniste, parce que l’Etat turc a voulu effacer des memoires ce
qui s’est passe, n’est pas acceptable.” Les etudiants ont ete decus:
seuls six parlementaires ont pris la peine de leur repondre.

“Dommages pour les deux pays”

Sur la nature des faits survenus en 1915 – genocide ou pas -, la
communaute turque reste donc divisee. Sur la question des principes,
toutefois, elle retrouve une ligne commune afin de denoncer l’atteinte
a la liberte d’expression que constituerait la loi. C’est aussi
le moyen d’eviter que ses prises de position ne soient reduites
a l’expression d’un ghetto communautaire. Sur un grand placard
publicitaire paru, le 21 janvier, dans quelques quotidiens, le
Comite de coordination des associations franco-turques prend ainsi
soin d’elever a un niveau plus general la polemique en mettant en
avant les reticences de nombreux historiens de renom, au premier
rang desquels Pierre Nora, oppose aux “revendications memorielles
de groupes particuliers”. Sans oublier de citer la tribune indignee
de l’ancien president du Conseil constitutionnel, Robert Badinter,
dans Le Monde, ramassee en une formule choc: “Le Parlement francais
n’a pas recu de la Constitution competence pour dire l’Histoire.”

En amont, plus discrètement, les patrons turcs ont, eux aussi, tente
de geler la mecanique legislative. Une delegation de la Tusiad –
le patronat liberal, accoutume a mener une diplomatie parallèle en
Europe – conduite par le president de l’Union des chambres et des
Bourses de Turquie (Tobb), Rifat Hisarciklioglu, s’est rendue a Paris,
en decembre 2011, afin de mettre en garde contre les “dommages pour
les deux pays” que causerait le vote de la loi.

Les Turcs ont plaide auprès de Laurence Parisot, patronne du Medef,
et d’Henri de Castries, president du directoire d’Axa, un des
piliers de l’Institut du Bosphore, une association basee a Paris,
fondee pour defendre aux yeux de l’opinion francaise la cause de la
Turquie europeenne. Sans resultat, a l’evidence.

Meme si certains de ses membres comme les journalistes Alexandre Adler
et Bernard Guetta, ont denonce le texte de loi, “l’Institut n’a pas
souhaite prendre de position collective, explique sa directrice, Serap
Atan. Mais les Turcs de France ont pris conscience avec cet episode
qu’ils ne pouvaient plus rester silencieux sauf a etre stigmatises”.

Le texte bloque par un recours de parlementaires

Une bombe atomique pour l’Elysee qui n’a rien vu venir President
du groupe France-Turquie a l’Assemblee nationale, le depute (UMP)
du Lot-et-Garonne Michel Diefenbacher a bataille jusqu’au bout contre
l’adoption du texte. “Le rôle du Parlement n’est pas de prendre parti
pour une communaute contre l’autre, justifie-t-il. En outre, notre
mission est de favoriser les relations entre nos pays. Or, dans les
deux cas, cette loi aboutit a un effet inverse.” Après l’adoption
du texte par les deux chambres, il n’a pas menage ses efforts,
en parallèle avec les senateurs du groupe RDSE, afin de reunir 60
signatures parmi ses collègues afin de deferer la loi devant le
Conseil constitutionnel.

La manoeuvre a finalement reussi. A la surprise generale, le 31
janvier, le Conseil etait saisi de deux recours, l’un emanant de
65 deputes, l’autre de 77 senateurs. “C’est une bombe atomique pour
l’Elysee qui n’a rien vu venir” declarait le depute UMP Lionel Tardy,
l’un des signataires. Les parlementaires s’associant au recours sont
issus de tous les groupes. Pour la communaute franco-turque, ce coup
de theâtre justifie leur mobilisation. “Bravo Nicolas Sarkozy !

ironise Umit Metin, coordinateur de l’Acort. Il aura tout fait pour
jeter les bases d’un futur lobby turc en France.”

FORMER ARMENIA PM WANTS INVESTMENT IN MILITARY

The Messengerm Georgia
Jan 31 2012

Former deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, Vaan Shirkhanyan, believes
that Azerbaijan’s attempt to enlarge its military will not create a
situation in which it has an advantage over Armenian forces. However,
he recommends that his country carry out an enhancement of their
combat facilities, including not only an increase in arms but also
training of soldiers and officers. Some Armenian analysts are claiming
that the military conflict between their country and Azerbaijan could
erupt again without intervention from larger states.

FRENCH LAWMAKERS WANT TOP COURT TO QUASH LAW THAT MAKES DENYING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ILLEGAL

Globe and Mail

Jan 31 2012
Canada

French lawmakers appealed to their country’s highest court on Tuesday
to overturn a law that makes it illegal to deny that the mass killing
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide.

The move raises the possibility that the law, which sparked an angry
reaction in Turkey and equally passionate support from the Armenian
Diaspora around the world, will be dismissed as unconstitutional.

The legislation, which received final parliamentary approval on Jan.

23 and was sent to President Nicolas Sarkozy for ratification,
prompted Ankara to cancel all economic, political and military meetings
with Paris.

But many of those who supported the bill appeared to have second
thoughts. More than 130 French lawmakers from across the political
divide in both the National Assembly and the Senate who had originally
voted against the bill, appealed to the Constitutional Council for
a ruling.

The court has one month to make its decision.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who branded the
legislation “discriminatory and racist,” thanked the lawmakers who
opposed it.

“On behalf of my country, I am declaring our heartfelt gratitude to
the senators and deputies who gave their signatures,” he said. “I
believe they have done what needed to be done.”

The lawmakers argued in their appeal that the event was still the
subject of historical contention, and therefore the legislation
infringed on the freedoms of historians, analysts and others to debate
it, ultimately violating the right to free speech.

They insisted their move did not aim to deny “the suffering of our
compatriots of Armenian origin and of all Armenians across the world.”

Last week, Mr. Erdogan said Turkey was in a “period of patience”
as it considered what measures to take if the bill became law.

France is Turkey’s fifth biggest export market and sixth biggest
supplier of imports of goods and services, and bilateral trade was
$13.5-billion in the first 10 months of last year.

“French companies in Turkey … wanted the Constitutional Council to
be involved because it’s the best solution to calm the Turks,” said
Dorothee Schmid, head of the Turkish program at the French Foreign
Relations Institute in Paris.

“The Turkish government accused the French government of being
racist and discriminatory,” she added, “yet this matter stems from
the inability of the Turks to handle the genocide case. Now there is
a discussion on it.”

As a member of NATO and the World Trade Organisation, Turkey may be
limited in its response by its international obligations. However,
media reports have speculated about possible measures that it might
take against France.

These included recalling the Turkish ambassador in Paris and expelling
the French ambassador in Ankara, thus reducing diplomatic ties to
chargee d’affaires level, and closing Turkish airspace and waters to
French military aircraft and vessels.

Some in mostly Muslim Turkey accuse President Sarkozy of trying to win
the votes of the estimated 500,000 ethnic Armenians living in France
in the two-round presidential vote on April 22 and May 6. France’s
Socialist Party, which has a majority in the upper house, and Mr.

Sarkozy’s UMP party, which put forward the bill, supported the
legislation.

Armenia, backed by many historians and parliaments, says about
1.5-million Christian Armenians were killed in what is now eastern
Turkey during the First World War in a deliberate policy of genocide
ordered by the Ottoman government.

The Ottoman empire was dissolved after the end of the war, but
successive Turkish governments and many Turks feel the charge of
genocide is a direct insult to their nation They say the deaths
occurred during a military conflict, and that there was heavy loss
of life on both sides during fighting in the area.

FRENCH LAWMAKERS CHALLENGE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF GENOCIDE BILL

Monsters and Critics
Jan 31 2012

Paris – A group of French senators on Tuesday launched a constitutional
challenge to a bill adopted by the French parliament that bans people
from denying genocides.

The RDSE, a group of mainly left-wing senators, petitioned the
Constitutional Council, the country’s highest court on constitutional
matters, to vet the bill.

The RDSE told dpa 77 senators drawn from all parties represented
in the Senate had signed the petition – more than the 60 signatures
required for the court to examine the legislation.

The court said it had also received a similar petition from a group
of at least 60 parliamentarians.

On January 23, parliament definitively adopted a bill making it a
crime punishable by a year in prison and 45,000 euros (57,000 dollars)
to deny or ‘outrageously minimize’ a genocide officially recognized
by France. President Nicolas Sarkozy has yet to sign it into law.

The bill caused anger in Turkey, because it punishes those who deny
that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century
ago constituted genocide.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the bill
as ‘racist.’ His government has threatened sanctions if Sarkozy
promulgates it.

The RDSE said in a statement that its intention was ‘not to question
in any way the existence of the Armenian genocide.’

At the same time, the senators considered that the bill trampled
the principle of freedom of expression as well as constitutional
provisions on the legality of offences and sentences.

The nine-member Constitutional Council issues rulings on the
constitutionality of bills before they become law. The court has one
month in which to issue the ruling.

Its members are appointed by the president and heads of the two
houses of parliament and are mainly senior civil servants, legal
experts and former politicians. Former presidents Jacques Chiracs
and Valery Giscaird d’Estaing are currently members.

France officially recognizes only two genocides: the Nazi Holocaust
of Jews during World War II and the deaths of hundreds of thousands
of Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917.

Armenians say around 1.5 million people were either killed or died
during forced deportations in eastern Turkey in 1915, at the height
of World War I.

Turkey estimates between 300,000 and 500,000 people died but denies
there was a systematic policy to destroy the Armenian community.

FRENCH COUNCIL ASKED TO BLOCK GENOCIDE LAW

Dawn

Jan 31 2012
Pakistan

PARIS: A group of French senators on Tuesday asked the country’s
constitutional council to block a new law that bans and punishes
denial of the Armenian genocide.

The Senate last week approved the measure which threatens with jail
anyone in France who denies that the 1915 massacre of Armenians by
Ottoman Turk forces amounted to genocide.

Earlier, the French National Assembly voted to back a law that would
make it illegal for anyone in France to deny that the 1915 killings
of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during World War I amounted
to genocide. France recognised mass killings of Armenians in the
Ottoman empire as genocide a decade ago, a bold step that pressure
from Turkey has prevented in countries with a large Armenian diaspora
such as the United States.

Turkey had already recalled its ambassador from France and threatened
a broader raft of diplomatic and trade sanctions.

Turkey says those killed were the victims of war, and has downgraded
relations with nations that disagreed.

SANDS: LOW-KEY ARONIAN SOARS HIGH IN WIJK AAN ZEE CHESS TOURNAMENT
By David R. Sands and David R. Sands

Washington Times

Jan 31 2012

Armenian GM Levon Aronian has added another chapter to a career that
has been both illustrious and somewhat under the radar, capturing
the 74th Tata Steel Grandmaster “A” Tournament in Wijk aan Zee,
Netherlands, Sunday by a full point over Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and
Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov. Despite a loss to Carlsen during the
Category 21 event, Aronian won going away, notching a quick last-round
draw to finish at a very impressive 9-4.

The genial 29-year-old Aronian, ranked second in the world behind
Carlsen, led his small country to gold in the 2006 and 2008 Olympiads
and to a World Team Chess title last year. He also has racked up a
slew of firsts in elite events over the past decade, and he’s the
reigning world blitz champion, to boot.

Yet despite a solid and at times spectacular style at the board,
he has at times been overlooked among the small class of the world’s
elite players, overshadowed by rivals such as Carlsen and reigning
world champion Viswanathan Anand – over whom Aronian has a 5-1 edge
in classical chess games.

Playing a few more games like this win from Tata would only help
Aronian’s Q rating. He schools young Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri from
the Black side of a Queen’s Gambit Declined, first with a powerful
exchange sacrifice to seize the initiative and then with a combination
featuring a queen sacrifice to wrap up the point.

Black’s 9. Qc2 Nh5!?, in a QGD line Aronian has played often as White
is the sharpest variation, inviting the complications that follow: 10.

Be5 f6 11. Ng5!? fxg5 (g6? 12. Nxh7 Kxh7 13. Bxh5 is strong for
White) 12. Bxh5 Bd7 13. Bf3. White’s bishops appear to be superior,
but Black’s next move completely changes the dynamic of the game.

Thus: 13. … Rxf3! 14. gxf3 Bd6 15. Qe4?! (Aronian was critical of
this idea, holding back the White pawn center while relocating the
queen to the king side) Bc6 16. Qg4 Qe7 17. Bxd6 cxd6 18. Ne4 h6
19. Qg3 d5.

Black’s last move (temporarily) closes in his own bishop but also
deprives White of any outlets for his rooks; Black’s rook, by contrast,
will find a powerful perch on the half-open f-file.

Very attractive is Black’s deft repositioning of his rook, knight (from
b6 to h4 in four consecutive moves) and bishop, all while depriving
White of any counterchances. The Black rook relocates to the d-file
to support Aronian’s pawn center in the final fireworks display.

There is a string of neat tactical touches in the finale: 36. a4 Rd8!

(all the pieces are now literally in place in preparation for the
coming e6-e5 breakthrough) 37. Ne2 e5 38. Qg4 (Rd1 exd4 39. Nxd4 Ne5
is painful for White) exd4 39. exd4 (Black also wins on 39. Nxd4
Ne5 40. Qe6+ Qxe6 41. Nxe6 Nd3+ 42. Kd2 Rd6, gaining material)
Re8 40. Qd7 c3! 41. Ra2 (see diagram; on 41. Nxc3, Black mates with
41. … Qf4+ 42.

Kd1 Qxd4+ 43. Kc1 Re1+ 44. Rxe1 Qxc3+ 45. Rc2 [Kd1 Qxe1 mate] Qa1 mate)
Ne1!! (threat: 42. … Nd3+ 43. Kc2 Nc5+, winning the queen) 42.

Rxe1 (Nxf4 Rxe1 is mate) Qe4, and there’s no good defense to 43. …

Qd3+ 45. Kc1 Qb1 mate. Giri resigned.

–

Aronian’s low profile is all the more curious because he has been
producing brilliancies like the Giri win from a very young age. He
learned the game at the age of 9 and just three years later took
the World Youth Chess Under-12 Championship title ahead of a slew of
future grandmasters.

In the FIDE world-championship knockout tournament in Las Vegas in
1999, the 16-year-old Aronian made a splash with a 2-0 dismissal of
Lithuanian GM Eduardas Rozentalis in the first round, including a
brilliant demolition job in the second game to advance.

The play is extremely double-edged in this King’s Indian Attack, with
Rozentalis’ rooks driving the White king to a very precarious perch on
h3. But it is White that lands the first telling blow with 30. Raf1
Bd6 31. Rxg7!, when 31. … Kxg7? loses to 32. Qf7+ Kh8 33. Qf6+ Kh7
(Kg8 34. Qg6+ Kh8 35. Qxh6+ Kg8 36. Be6 mate) 34. Bf5+ Kg8 35. Qg6+
Kf8 36. Qxh6+ Ke8 37. Re1+, leading to mate.

But the game remains in balance until 33. Rxf2 Qxf2 34. Rg6! Qf5+ 35.

Kg2 Qxh5? (unwisely taking the bait, though Black only draws at best
after 35. … Qc2+ 36. Qe2 Qxe2+ 37. Bxe2 Bf8 38. Bc4 Kh7 39. Rf6) 36.

Qd4+ Qe5 37. Rxd6!!, a neat geometrical trick that leads to a won
ending.

After 37. … Qxd4 38. Rxd5 Re8 39. Rd6, Black’s resignation may be
a tad premature, but the win for White is a straightforward matter
of technique.