Levon Aronian
Alekhine Memorial Super-Tournament 2013 / Rnd 9 / Final
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Grave Site For Alexander Alekhine
Well Now – It’s All Over.
| # | Name | ELO | Pts | S-B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aronian, Levon | 0 | 5.5 | 24 |
| Gelfand, Boris | 0 | 5.5 | 23.75 | |
| 3 | Anand, Viswanathan | 0 | 5 | 21.75 |
| 4 | Vitiugov, Nikita | 0 | 4.5 | 20.25 |
| Fressinet, Laurent | 0 | 4.5 | 20 | |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | 0 | 4.5 | 19.75 | |
| Adams, Michael | 0 | 4.5 | 19.25 | |
| Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 0 | 4.5 | 18.5 | |
| 9 | Ding, Liren | 0 | 3.5 | 16 |
| 10 | Svidler, Peter | 0 | 3 | 13.75 |
The last game to complete was Kramnik’s win over Michael Adams; a valiant finish for Kramnik who again displayed tremendous fighting spirit.
The end result – A Tie for first place between Levon Aronian and Boris Gelfand. On tie-breaking (last column above) it turns out that first place goes to Levon Aronian.
For All Games This Round (PGN) – Please See Comments.
Alekhine Memorial Super-Tournament 2013 / Rnd 4
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Levon Aronian
Aronian demonstrated why he is #2 on the world ratings list. Tough game? Yes – but playing White he convincingly took out Peter Svidler in a Svidler speciality – the Grunfeld Defense.
Fressinet drew a complicated game against Adams.
Adams traded off both his Bishops for White’s Knights. Fressinet appeared to have a winning advantage; Adams fought back valiantly to secure the draw.
For All Games (PGN) – See Comments.
Alekhine Memorial Super-Tournament 2013 / Rnd 1
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Liren Ding
Congratulations to Liren Ding; he crushed Aronian in the first round of the Alekhine Memorial Super-Tournament of 2013.
Ding is rated #34 on the FIDE rating list and he just took out Aronian who is #2 on that list. Add to that that (personal opinion) Aronian never really looked to be in the game at all.
Congratulations again to Ding for a powerful performance.
Adams, with the Black pieces, beat World Champion Anand.
Kramnik won his game versus Vitiugov.
For All Games (PGN) – See Comments.
Candidates Tournament 2013 / Rnd 10
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Vladimir Kramnik
The Berlin Wall Strikes Again. Kramnik had a gigantic neutralizing weapon in his World Championship Match, which he won, versus Gary Kasparov. It was the old (new again) Berlin Variation in the Ruy Lopez. At one time this variation was a favorite of Tarrasch and Pillsbury who both had very good success with it. It gives the impression that the endgame is poor for Black because White has a Kingside Pawn majority. However that Kingside majority of Pawns is stuck. White has difficulty controlling the White squares; put that e5 Pawn back on e4 and White has good square control and a dark Bishop that is not bumping into walls. In the game today Kramnik easily blockaded the White majority and the more the pieces were exchanged White’s Queenside Pawns were exposed as vulnerable targets. Alexander Grischuk, playing White, had to exchange the last minor piece which led to a pure King and Pawn ending with White having no compensation for Black’s Queenside Pawns. Kramnik played this entire game extremely well; very instructive game throughout.
Click On The Diagram To Step Through The Game.
Levon Aronian |
Magnus Carlsen |
Aronian dismantled a Budapest Gambit from Ivanchuk. When Black was ready to capitalize on his Pawn structure and nibble Pawns on the Queenside, White turned his attention to the King (Diagram On Left) and won a smashing game.
Magnus Carlsen remains in the lead (half point) by beating Gelfand. Once again he makes it look simple; Centralization, Pressure, Crack.
Diagram On Right.
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All PGN Files Games Within Comments Below.
Candidates Tournament 2013 / Rnd 6
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Carlsen played excellently with the Black pieces against Svidler’s Ruy Lopez. Carlsen appears to be comfortable on either side of the Spanish game. Here he effected the comfortable break of d5 on move 17 (Diagram). Constant centralization combined with irritating threats eventually brought White to his knees.
Click on the Diagram to step through the game.
Aronian also played and won on the Black side of a Spanish Game against Radjabov. This was an extremely hard fought and well played game on both sides.
Click on the Diagram to step through the game.
This win, along with Carlsens’s win (above), maintains a tie between Carlsen and Aronian for first place.
Exciting.
For all games in PGN format – See Comments.
Candidates Tournament 2013 / Rnd 3
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Peter Svidler
Svidler won a well-fought game against Teimour Radjabov in the third round. Radjabov opened with a King’s Indian Defense which transposed into a Benko Gambit. Black appeared to be doing well, but made a questionable (gutsy) material imbalance on the 17th move (Diagram). White hunkered down and converted his extra material. This was a very tough game.
Click on the Diagram to step through the game.
Aronian, playing Black, again showed why he is a very dangerous opponent in this tourney. He applied relentless pressure against Ivanchuk who crumpled/faltered during the final moves.
Click on the Diagram below to step through the ANNOTATED Game.
Carlsen, playing Black, won his game against Gelfand showing why an outside Queenside majority of Pawns is such a dangerous weapon.
Click on the Diagram to step through the game.
For the PGN files of all games played this round – See Comments.
Candidates Tournament 2013 / Rnd 2
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Levon Aronian went into the plus column with a nice win against Gelfand who made a tactical error.
Click on the Diagram below to reference the Annotated Game.
Radjabov absolutely crushed Ivanchuk who never really got his pieces out of the box.
Click on the Diagram below to reference the Annotated Game.
The PGN files for the two Annotated Games and the two other draws of this round are found in the Comments below.
Candidates Tournament 2013 / Rnd 1
by National Life Master Loal Davis
The first round of the 2013 Candidates Tournament,
held in London, featured four draws.
All four games are ANNOTATED within the Diagrams below.
Should you wish, the PGN files (Annotated Games) are also referenced in the Comments below.
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Aronian vs Carlsen 
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Svidler vs Kramnik 
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Gelfand vs Radjabov 
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Ivanchuk vs Grischuk
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Tata Steel / Round 4 – - – Anand ! !
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Viswanathan Anand
When is the last time that the World’s #2 rated player (in this case Levon Aronian) was taken out in a mere 23 moves by someone playing the Black pieces?
That is what Anand did today – it was a sparkling diamond of a game.
I predict it will go down as one of the best/fantastic games of all time.
An absolutely flabbergasting performance by the reigning World Champion.
Take note: Chess game engines won’t keep up with this game. It is amusing to watch their evaluation (Houdini included) give a plus to White (multiple times) – only to wake up a few moves later (multiple times) and realize they are in the soup. This game is on an entirely different level. I can’t say enough about Anand’s performance in this game. Wow ! !
Click on the board to step through the annotated game.
See Comments for the other decisive games of this round.
London Chess Classic / Rnd 6
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Magnus Carlsen vs Judit Polgar
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Mickey Adams vs Viswanathan Anand
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Luke Mcshane vs Gawain Jones
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Levon Aronian vs Vladimir Kramnik
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