Aronianplatz

John B. Henderson • February 21, 2023

“The chess world is a better place when Aronian is playing well!” So mused Garry Kasparov in 2015 when Levon Aronian hit a purple patch of creativity at the board. And that Kasparov quote reverberates once again in 2023, as the former Armenian, who now lives in, and represents, the USA stormed into the sole lead in the WR Chess Masters in Dusseldorf, Germany.


Rolling back the years with a brace of solid wins in rounds 1 and 3 over top teenage talents Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa and Nodirbek Abdusattorov respectively - and draws against Vincent Keymer & Jan-Krzysztof Duda - was enough to see Aronian, now regarded as the elder statesmen of the elite circuit, to jump into the lead on 3/4 going into the rest day of the only German supertournament on the elite circuit.

Aronian is a colourful character who always gives entertaining reasons when he hits a purple patch. The latest, he revealed in the official live stream, is that he is currently watching the miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 15-hour odyssey through the underbelly of interwar Berlin. “The plot in 1920s Berlin is so sad,” says Aronian, “that it makes me happy as soon as I can sit at the board again. Everything is quite wonderful then.”


It may be the ‘old man’ who is in the lead, but teenage talents have been taking the plaudits with all the first-half pyrotechnics at the board - the standout sacrificial win proving to be Uzbek rising star Abdusattorov’s ‘Greek gift’ mauling of Andrei Esipenko, one of the two Russians in the field playing under the neutral FIDE flag due to sanctions imposed over the Ukrainian war. 


Standings:

1. L. Aronian (USA) 3/4; 2-3. W. So (USA), Gukesh D (India) 2½; 4-7. A. Giri (Netherlands), I. Nepomniachtchi (FIDE), N. Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) A. Esipenko (FIDE) 2; 8-9. JK. Duda (Poland) 1½; 10. V. Keymer (Germany) 1.


GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov - GM Andrey Esipenko

WR Chess Masters, (2)

Nimzo-Indian, Rubinstein variation

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 The Rubinstein Variation, named after the great Akiba Rubinstein - who first brought this line into praxis against Alexander Alekhine during the famous St. Petersburg International of 1914 - is one of the most critical of White responses against the solid Nimzo-Indian. 4…0-0 5.Bd2 b6 6.Bd3 d5 A standard Nimzo-Indian set-up that rose to fame in the 1950s during those epic multi-round Candidates Tournaments of the era. 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Nf3 Re8 9.Rc1 Bf8 The immediate 9...c5 is also playable, and in some ways more preferable, where after 10.dxc5 bxc5 11.0-0 White will look to have play against Black's central hanging pawns. 10.0-0 Bb7 11.Ne5 c5 12.f4 Nc6 13.Ne2 Ne4 14.Ng3 Nxd2? [see diagram] Not so much walking into a minefield as running into one! Abdusattorov's attack is building up steam for sure, but more manageable was 14...Nxg3 15.hxg3 Qd6 16.g4 g6 17.g5!? Bg7 (It's too dangerous to take the pawn with 17...cxd4? 18.exd4 Nxd4 as 19.Bc3 Ne6 20.Ng4 and Black is in deep trouble on the kingside.) 18.Bb5 Red8 19.Qf3 Rac8 20.Qf2 where White is better due to the attack, but Black is not without resources here to keep the game competitive. 15.Bxh7+! The 'Greek gift' never fails to entertain in chess! 15...Kxh7 16.Qh5+ Abdusattorov's attack basically plays itself, but he doesn't miss a beat with his follow up(s). 16...Kg8 17.Qxf7+ Kh8 18.Ng6+ Kh7 19.Nh5! Bang goes the old adage again of the knight on the rim being dim! 19...Re6 The only move to defend against the mating threat of Nxf8+ and Qxg7#. 20.f5 Nxf1 21.Rxf1 Qg5? A losing blunder from Esipenko. The only way to try to survive is with 21...Qe8! 22.Nxf8+ Qxf8 23.fxe6 (If 23.Qxe6 Qe8! is enough to hold the draw with 24.Nxg7 Kxg7 25.f6+ Kh6! (The other king moves lose, such as 25...Kh7? 26.Qh3+ Kg6 27.f7 Qe4 28.f8Q Rxf8 29.Qg3+! Kh5 30.Rxf8 Qb1+ 31.Rf1 Qe4 32.h4 and the Black king is snared in a mating net.) 23...Qxf7 24.Rxf7 Rb8 25.Nxg7 cxd4 26.exd4 Kg6 27.h4! Nxd4 28.h5+ Kg5 29.e7 and Black can only defend with the accurate 29...Bc6! 30.Rf8 Rb7 31.e8Q Bxe8 32.Nxe8 leaving an ending that Black should easily hold. 22.Qxe6 Qxh5 If 22...Ne7 23.Qf7! forces Black down the losing line of: 23...Nxg6 24.fxg6+ Qxg6 25.Nf6+ Kh6 26.Qxb7 Rd8 27.Qc7 Rd6 28.Ng8+ winning the bishop and also the game. 23.Rf3 The rook lift decides the game - there's no defence now. 23...cxd4 24.Qf7! Bd6 It was either this or going down even quicker with 24...Ne5 25.Nxf8+ Kh6 26.Qe6+ g6 27.Rh3 Qxh3 28.gxh3 Rxf8 29.Qxe5 d3 30.Qf4+ Kg7 31.Qd4+ and the White queen will clear up all the loose pawns. The text is still losing, but at least Esipenko keeps some hope alive with his pieces at least coming together as a cohesive unit. 25.Nf8+ Rxf8 26.Qxh5+ Kg8 27.f6! The final nail in the coffin, as it blows away the defence around Esipenko’s king. 27...Ne5 28.Rf5 g6 After 28...gxf6 29.exd4 and to defend his king, Black will need to give up his knight with 29...Rf7 30.dxe5 Bxe5 31.Qg6+ Kf8 32.Rh5 d4 33.Qd3 where, eventually, White will hunt down the Black king. 29.Qg5 Abdusattorov now quickly and very efficiently finishes off the game. 29...dxe3 30.Rxe5! Kf7 31.Rxe3 Bc5 32.b4 Bxe3+ 33.Qxe3 Re8 34.Qc3! Defending the f6-pawn, stopping ...Re1+, and threatening Qc7+. 34...Bc8 35.a4 Bf5 36.h3 Abdusattorov is no particular hurry to rush things, and he's looking to play g4-g5. 36...Rd8 37.Qd4 Blockading the d-pawn. 37...Be6 38.g4 Rc8 39.g5 Rc1+ 40.Kf2 Rc2+ 41.Kg3 1-0

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • October 2, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • September 29, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • September 27, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • September 25, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • September 22, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • September 19, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • September 14, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • September 11, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • September 8, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • September 4, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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