It took Levon Aronian just two games and less than an hour and a half to beat Vladislav Artemiev for the $ 30,000 grand prize in Goldmoney Asian Rapid. Levon’s spectacular final victory was a fitting end to an event in which he had also won the preliminary round in order to take home the maximum number of Tour points. The battle for third place was also one-sided, but with a twist. Ding Liren hit back to win the rapid 3-0 on the second day before Magnus Carlsen took over in the Blitz.
You can play all games of the knockout phase of Goldmoney Asian Rapid, the 7.
And here is the last day’s live commentary from Danny King and Tania Sachdev.
And by David Howell, Jovanka Houska and Kaja Snare.
Levon Aronian wins his first Tour title
Levon Aronian will join the United States Chess Federation after the FIDE World Cup, so it was appropriate that he won his first tournament on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour on Independence Day. Magnus Carlsen later joked when asked if he was happy for his friend.
I used to like Levon as an Armenian and, for a short time, as a German, but as an American I’m not so sure!
Levon had won day 1 of his match against Vladislav Artemiev and described his tactics for the day:
Before this morning when I was preparing I did this strategy that I had to press, I had to do the same thing that I did because if you are behind in a game and then lose a game, it’s almost done so I wanted this one Keeping the fighting spirit I had against Magnus, and I wanted to keep it yesterday too, and I think it worked out pretty well!
Levon’s pressing strategy was to play very fast, although he also went for devilishly complicated positions. We’d seen in previous laps that this led to mistakes, but this time Levon wasn’t making any real mistakes so the pressure on Vladislav was relentless. A typical example is moving 43… g4!that Levon did with just eight and a half minutes on the clock while his opponent was under 30 seconds.
All of a sudden, black was creating all sorts of threats. If White did nothing Be4 +, then Rd1 + and Bf3 # would provide mate-in-3. The other threat, however, is for the h5 runner who is after 44.Kf1! Rd1 + 45.Ke2 Rh1! 46.Bc3 Rxh2 suddenly had no more places.
Vladislav was able to avoid material loss with 47.Bb4 +! Ke6 48.e4! (48.Be8 was also an option) 48… Rxh5 49.exf5 + Kxf5 but the relentless series of tasks to be solved eventually led Artemiev to join 50.f3?
The desire to exchange a pair of farmers was understandable, but afterwards 50… Rh2 +! the white king cannot both secure the queenside and control the black king’s pawn. After this 51.Ke3 gxf3 52.Kxf3 Rc2! it was game over.
Levon ended in style and eventually caught the bishop while the rook cut off the white king.
There was nothing stopping the b-pawn from marching across the board to become a queen, so Artemiev stepped back.
That left him with a mountain to climb and he decided to take some risks in the opening with the black stones. Then the players identified themselves 15… f5 !? as a mistake, but it could only have been a meeting 16.exf5 With 16… gxf5 ?! instead of 16… Nxf5 that led to disaster. Definitely, 17.Bg5! was a strong move and 17 4 e4 did not have the desired effect.
18.Ng3! was the beginning of a perfectly played attack. After this 18… exf3 Levon unleashed 19.Nxf5!which he said he had not seen immediately. It was also the move that Vladislav had overlooked: “I overlooked an idea with Nf5 and after that it is an absolutely lost position for Black”.
After either 19… Nf6 or 19… Ne5 as played in the game, the tactical point was the same: 20.Nxg7! (a single move) 20… Kxg7.
Again, there’s only one move, but it’s a killer: 21.Rxe5! dxe5 22.d6! Qd7 23.Qxf3! Ng6 24.Qxa8! Bb7 25.Qxa7 Qc6 26.f3! Ra8 and one might think that White would be forced to play 27.Qxb7 + Qxb7 28.Be4, with the advantage gone, but in fact Levon had foreseen the last nice touch 27.d7!
Black cannot capture the queen without allowing the d-pawn to take the queen during afterwards 27… Qxd7 28.Qxb6 the queen had escaped and White had three pawns more, with the pair of bishops and an ongoing attack. There was no hope, and Vladislav finally gave up on move 36, to a very reluctant double fist pump from Levon.
It was a brilliant tournament win for Levon, who had also won the preliminary round to ensure he took home the maximum number of 50 tour points as well as the grand prize of $ 30,000.
He is well on his way to qualifying for the final of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour in San Francisco this September. These are the current top 10.
However, Levon has generally been humble in terms of performance, feeling like he only played well the last two games on Saturday and his last two wins on Sunday. In retrospect, it could be argued that 17-year-old Arjun Erigaisi was the hardest to press for Levon, though there were also big mistakes that went unpunished against someone who normally punishes mistakes – Magnus Carlsen.
Levone commented:
Well, I have to say that of course I was lucky against Magnus. If I wasn’t lucky in this match where I got everything wrong, we wouldn’t be sitting here and saying how smart and intelligent my tactic was!
Magnus himself would later remark:
I gave away a head start three times after the first day – that can’t happen, but the game against Levon was certainly unfortunate. Not that I was unlucky, it was just a shame I didn’t win it. What happened there on the second day should of course not happen. It’s one thing if he wins, if he plays like he did in the final when he was very convincing, but I really don’t think he played that well against me and that’s the annoying part for me, but overall I did probably played poorly in the preliminary rounds too, so he was certainly a much more deserving winner than I would have been … but it’s still obviously annoying.
Levon had definitely earned the right to celebrate.
For the 23-year-old Vladislav Artemiev, on the other hand, it was the bitter end of an otherwise great tour debut.
He was runner-up in the prelims, defeating Anish Giri in the quarterfinals and returning to beat Ding Liren in the semifinals. He had exceeded his own expectations:
Of course I think so before the tournament [would have been] a little surprise when some people [had told me] I will play in the final. Of course I wanted to get into the knockout round and maybe beat a guy, a top guy, and see what comes after that, but it’s a bit of a surprise that I’m going to the final so it’s very good for me and I will try to improve my chess style and level.
Magnus arrives at the end
As Magnus pointed out, he had managed to win all three of his knockout games (against So, Aronian and Ding) on the first day, only to lose the fast segment on the second day. It was a 3-0 collapse against Ding Liren in the third place match, with Magnus pointing out the shock tactics 35.Ne8 +! in the first game than the moment everything went wrong.
To “fall” on the tactic with 35… Rxe8 36.d7 Rcd8 37.dxe8 = D Rxe8 was perhaps the best option while Magnus was up in the game 35… Kf8 ?! 36.d7 Rb8 and decided to take advantage of his 8-minute advantage on the clock when Ding traded for a better queen endgame. With precise play Magnus might have held up, but it felt like it was a day when he didn’t feel like grinding.
The second game continued where the first had left off, with Ding getting the black pieces under control early on and then winning one of those typical games in which he only improved his position step by step until there was nothing more to do for his opponent but is resigned. Magnus’ choice of 1.b3 had not been confirmed!
That meant Magnus had to win the next two games on demand to avoid a playoff, but instead found himself much worse again, and although he fought his way back, it was only to a position where he played a final a farmer had to defend Nieder. He decided that enough was enough and, perhaps because draw offers are not allowed before move 40, he just gave up instead of offering a draw.
That meant a playoff and a chance for redress. As Magnus commented:
It was just a bad day in rapid, but luckily I knew that 1) the stakes weren’t that high and 2) I always had a chance in blitz.
In fact, the first blitz game went so well for Magnus that it might justify all the misery he had caused himself in rapid chess. He slowly reduced Ding’s position in a Ruy Lopez, with 28.Rd6! This means that the position battle was won by White. 28… f5 ?! only hastened the end.
After this 29.Bxf4! exf4 ?! (29… fxe4! Is a better attempt) 30.Nd4! Ne5 (hold c6) Magnus began to maneuver the queen to kill with 31.Qb1! The game would end later when the last white piece, the f1 runner, joined the party 38.Bd3!
So Ding had to win on demand to force Armageddon, but it was Magnus who had all the fun in the last blitz game with the black pieces. In the end we came to a position where it would be suicidal for White to continue playing – Ding tried for a brief moment, but his suicide was rejected – before the Chinese no. 1 admitted it was over and drew a draw.
That meant the Goldmoney Asian Rapid was over.
“The flash was fine!” Magnus summed up when asked about his day.
Magnus had no plans to celebrate his 3rd place, but thought his 2nd 3rd place on the tour was at least better than 4th place. His mind now turns to the FIDE World Cup, which he kicks off on July 15th if he makes it to Russia. What are his hopes?
First I hope to get there! This is my first plan! Hope to be able to submit a negative COVID test tomorrow, get my first vaccination and then go on my way. As for the goals, I don’t know, I think we’ll see how it goes. I think in such a big knockout, if you get there with the mindset that anything but a win is a disappointment you are preparing to fail, so to speak, so I’m not going to think in those terms, but rather good training and try to go as far as possible.
Hopefully in the first couple of rounds I have at least some opponents that are slightly weaker on paper, so maybe I get a chance to get in shape, but yeah sure, I think playing fast is very good, even for the classical, but you don’t really know
In fact, as part of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain, before the FIDE World Cup, Magnus will also play some blitz, with one of the final events to qualify players for that tournament, the Final of the Geschlänkelblitz-Cup, from Monday 5th July. Evgeny Miroshnichenko, better known for his commentary, was the last player to beat 15-year-old prodigy Praggnanandhaa.
We also have the Croatia Grand Chess Tour, which starts on Wednesday July 7th in Zagreb, with a certain Garry Kasparov, who is with us for the last two lightning days over the weekend.
We hope you enjoyed the Goldmoney Asian Rapid and stay tuned for all the other chess action!
See also:
