Norway Chess 2017, Round 9: Aronian Wins the Tournament
It's shaping up to be a good year for Levon Aronian. First Wijk aan Zee, now Norway Chess! It looks like his slump is over, and he's once again going to be a contender for the world championship - as he should be. By holding a draw with Black against Wesley So he finished the tournament with an undefeated 6-3 score, with wins against the world's #1 and #2 players - Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik, respectively - plus Sergey Karjakin, the "vice champion". (This is not to be confused with a champion of vice rather than virtue.) He also crushed the 2800 barrier after some time below that bar, and is now the world's #4, 1.3 points behind Wesley So.
Hikaru Nakamura was the runner up - or rather, the co-runner-up. Had he defeated Fabiano Caruana today he could have caught Aronian (and rejoined the 2800 club). Another effect would have been Caruana's ouster from the same club, but it didn't happen. Caruana prepared a new idea with White against the Poisoned Pawn Variation in the Najdorf, and while the computer finds a variety of equalizers for Black, human beings finding them over the board is another matter entirely. Nakamura was unable to negotiate all the complications, and lost a game that was as good as over long before the clocks were stopped.
Sharing second with Nakamura, with 5/9, was the up-and-down Vladimir Kramnik. For the fourth round in a row, White won, and since he had the white pieces this time it was good news for him. His victim was Anish Giri, who also enjoyed and suffered a roller coaster of a tournament. Kramnik played an extremely provocative version of the Colle (a statement that sounds as funny as "an exciting London System" used to, but the richness of the royal game never cease to amaze), and it worked better than Kramnik could have dreamed. Giri is always - or now we should say, almost always - extremely well-prepared, but having sown the wind he wasn't ready for the whirlwind, and lost in just 20 moves.
The other two games were short but not perfunctory draws. Sergey Karjakin was in trouble on the white side of a Najdorf against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and had MVL played 24...f5 followed by 25...e4 he would have been a favorite to win with his extra pawn. Instead, he blundered with 24...Rxd5, allowing Karjakin to bail out with a draw by repetition. The world champion, Magnus Carlsen, was also in trouble against his most recent predecessor, Viswanathan Anand. Had Anand played 23.e5 he would have had good winning chances. The opportunity was missed, and in the end it was Anand who was more forced to play for the draw than Carlsen.
The games, with my annotations, can be replayed here. Here are the final standings:
1. Aronian 6 (of 9)
2-3. Nakamura, Kramnik 5
4-6. Caruana, So, Giri 4.5
7-9. Vachier-Lagrave, Anand, Carlsen 4
10. Karjakin 3.5
Reader Comments (4)
It's shaping up to be a good year for Levon Aronian. First Wijk aan Zee, now Norway Chess!
(And the Grenke Chess Classic in between!)
"It's shaping up to be a good year for Levon Aronian. First Wijk aan Zee, now Norway Chess! It looks like his slump is over, and he's once again going to be a contender for the world championship - as he should be."
While Wijk aan Zee (shared third place) wasn't bad for Aronian - the Sharjah Grand Prix was - I suspect that you rather mean Grenke Chess.A great result in Wijk aan Zee in January, rather than Germany in April, would have improved his chances to be a contender for the world championship in the current cycle. As it stands, they are limited to put it mildly: By Elo he would have to create a gap of about 25-30 points with at least two of Kramnik/So/Caruana quickly and keep it - this was the gap in the other direction earlier in 2017. Via the GP series: After a bad result in Sharjah, even sole first in both of his remaining events may not be enough. Which leaves (besides a candidates wildcard) reaching the World Cup final or, that failing, two of Kramnik/So/Caruana reaching the World Cup final - when the race for the second rating spot would suddenly be wide open.
You have a lot of faith in Kramnik's opening preparation: He spent 16 minutes on 8.Nc3 (a lot just to remember or double-check prep) and after the game admitted that he simply forgot to play 5.b3. "if someone is willing to repeat Giri's approach against him [Kramnik]" - despite the result I wonder whether Kramnik will repeat Kramnik's approach ... .
[DM: Yes, you're correct about which event I had in mind with Aronian (and likewise Flaneur. However, I didn't mean that Aronian was likely to qualify by rating, though if the trend keeps up he may. I just meant that if he gets back to the form he had a few years ago, he's likely to get to the Candidates by some means.
As for having faith in Kramnik's preparation, I do (as a rule of thumb), with very good reason. (Do I really need to make a case for Kramnik as one of the best-prepared players of the past 20 years, if not simply *the* best and most influential player?) I wasn't aware of Kramnik's comment about intending 5.b3, but didn't suspect over that it was a fingerfehler as he also played 5.0-0 against Aronian (as noted in the annotations). Anyway, even if the whole thing was preparation - which, given Kramnik's confession, it quite possibly wasn't (unless he was offering disinformation) - he's still unlikely to repeat it if the engine evaluations between White's 8th move and Black's 10th move are to be trusted. Sometimes an idea is good for just one game, whether prepared or not.]
Carlsen, in his interview as reported on Chess 24, attributes his poor performance to a loss of confidence, saying essentially "I know I can play, but I'm not so sure I can win." I wonder too whether his lengthy time at the top and the magnitude of his dominance has dulled his ambition to improve while stoking his peers' ambition to reach him.
[DM: It would be a shame for him and for chess in general if he can't regain his hunger and ambition until he loses his title. There are several players I root for over Carlsen, but I want them to compete with and defeat peak-Carlsen, not his shadow. It is a loss for chess if its greatest player is no longer producing the kinds of masterpieces he is capable of on a consistent basis.]
I don't think we should read too much into Carlsen's poor performance. When Kramnik was world champion, he wasn't winning every tournament he played in. We've got to give people a pass occasionally. Carlsen crushed the blitz though, so not all is lost.