Grenke Chess Classic, Round 1: Four Draws
Monday, February 2, 2015 at 9:48PM
Dennis Monokroussos in Grenke Chess Classic 2015

I commented in my preview that this looked like a tournament that was bound to have lots of decisive games, so of course all the games in round one finished in a draw. (I'm sticking to that prediction!) The games were more interesting than the results may suggest, and in at least two of the games one of the players was in some trouble.

There were two marquee games, beginning with Levon Aronian vs. Magnus Carlsen. Aronian didn't get anything from the opening, an Exchange Queen's Gambit, but he outplayed Carlsen in the middlegame and was pushing for something serious until an error on move 37 (time pressure?) let Carlsen escape. In the second time control Carlsen even enjoyed an edge of his own, but it wasn't enough to win against Aronian's sturdy defense.

The second headline game saw Fabiano Caruana take on Viswanathan Anand, but if there was a dud in the round this was it. Anand had the advantage out of the opening, but a series of wholly unforced concessions in pursuit of a draw left Caruana with the upper hand. Anand has been in the habit of doing this for a long time, but so far only Carlsen has proved able to punish the ex-champ for it.

Etienne Bacrot and David Baramidze drew the shortest game of the round, but if Bacrot had played 27.fxg4 instead of 27.Nce4 it might still have been the shortest game - the difference being that Bacrot probably would have won. After his missed that opportunity, a perpetual check ensued almost immediately.

Finally, Arkadij Naiditsch was Black in a Tarrasch French against Michael Adams, and somehow managed to outplay Adams in a very drawish position. If Naiditsch had played 40...Ng4+ instead of 40...Kf6, Adams may have had a tough time saving the point.

Tournament site here, games (with my very brief notes) here, and the round 2 pairings are Anand - Naiditsch, Carlsen - Adams, Baramidze - Aronian and Caruana - Bacrot.

Article originally appeared on The Chess Mind (http://www.thechessmind.net/).
See website for complete article licensing information.