Wijk aan Zee, Round 12: Aronian Clinches a Tie for First
The penultimate round in Wijk aan Zee was rather odd, and in a way a return to normalcy. In the previous round Levon Aronian suddenly made the tournament interesting by losing his previous game with White, allowing Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov to suddenly close to within half a point. So what now? His rivals drew their games while Aronian eventually outfoxed Boris Gelfand to win, boost his lead back to a full point, and clinch at least a tie for first.
The Gelfand-Aronian battle was pitched, with both players trying for a long time to earn a win. White had lots of holes and penetration points on the queenside, while Aronian was soon committed to kingside counterplay or a painful loss. Only after the time control were matters settled when Gelfand blundered the game away with 46.Kxg2??; with 46.Nxg2 he should have held a draw.
Carlsen had White against Gata Kamsky, but didn't get much with his 9.d4 Anti-Marshall. The game grew complex, but after Kamsky's 17...Kh8! those complications were in Black's favor. Fortunately for the young Norwegian, he was worse but never losing, and with his characteristic resilience he eventually saved the game.
Radjabov also had White, in his case against a psychologically reeling Vassily Ivanchuk. Radjabov declined the Benko Gambit with 5.b6, and may have enjoyed some edge after 19.exd6. His 19.exf6 probably wasn't as good thanks to the accurate 19...Bxf6!, but there wasn't any objective reason to call it a day just one move later; it seems that White has at least a little something with 21.f5.
The draw left Ivanchuk half a point behind Radjabov and Carlsen in fourth, where he was tied with Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. Caruana was fortunate to draw, as he was two pawns down without much compensation against David Navara. Unfortunately for Navara, who has had a very poor tournament, 38.Qf1?? blundered the exchange, after which Caruana even had the better half of the draw. Nakamura, by contrast, entered the tie by giving Loek van Wely his second straight loss. White (Nakamura) gained no edge in an 11.c4 Sveshnikov, but as time trouble approached the young American gained some ground. 35.Ng5 was a provocation best ignored (e.g. 35...a4=; 35...f6!? 36.Bh3!? is unclear). Van Wely's decision to capture was mistaken, and after 35...Bxg5?! 36.hxg5 Qxg5 37.Bh3 Rc7 38.Rxd6 Kg7?! 39.f4 exf4 40.gxf4 Qe7 41.e5 White was in charge, all the more so after 41...a4?! 42.e6! White crashed through in the center and won convincingly.
Finally, Veselin Topalov won his first game of the tournament, at the expense of Anish Giri's acquisition of olympic rings (five consecutive losses); while Sergey Karjakin drew a short game with Vugar Gashimov.
Standings After Round 12 (of 13):
1. Aronian 8.5
2-3. Carlsen, Radjabov 7.5
4-6. Ivanchuk, Caruana, Nakamura 7
7-8. Kamsky, Karjakin 6
9-11. van Wely, Gelfand, Topalov 5
12. Gashimov 4.5
13-14. Navara, Giri 4
Final Round Pairings:
- Aronian - Radjabov
- van Wely - Carlsen
- Ivanchuk - Karjakin
- Caruana - Gelfand
- Gashimov - Nakamura
- Kamsky - Topalov
- Giri - Navara
In the B group, Pentala Harikrishna maintains a narrow half-point lead (with 8.5 points) over Alexander Motylev and Erwin L'Ami. Motylev had White against Harikrishna in a Berlin endgame they drew, while L'Ami was lost against Timman but held a draw when the latter blundered.
In Group C, the thrilling two-man show continues, as both Maxim Turov and Hans Tikkanen continued their winning ways. Both won with Black to reach 9.5 points, with Turov defeating Indiana GM Baskaran Adhiban and Tikkanen handing Matthew Schlechter Sadler his first defeat.
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