World Cup, Round 6 (Semi-Finals), Day 3 Tiebreaks: Ding Liren, Aronian Win, Advance to the Finals, and Qualify for the Candidates
At last, the World Cup has lived up to expectations: there was an Armageddon game! But before we get to the match between Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, let's discuss Ding Liren's triumph.
So Long, Farewell:
(The lengths I will go to for a "good" pun.)
In game 1 of the Ding Liren vs. Wesley So match, So had good winning chances with White before letting his opponent escape with a draw, and in game 2 it was the reverse. This pattern didn't continue in game 3, at least as far as colors were concerned. Ding was Black and still had So on the ropes, but let him escape - more than once. He was so disgusted by this that he had a difficult time readjusting for game 4, especially when he was surprised in the opening, and offered a draw on move 9. So accepted, and they were on to the 10' + 10" games.
It's harder to say if So had an advantage with White in game 5 after the opening. Maybe he had a tiny edge, maybe not, but Ding Liren's very energetic play starting with 20...Nxf2 put So on the defensive. Maybe he could have held with more time on his clock; in the game, Ding won convincingly, culminating in a queen vs. rook ending that he converted with ease. In the rematch, So was unable to create any problems for his opponent, who drew comfortably from a position of strength.
Aronian vs. Vachier-Lagrave:
Their classical games were on the tame side, but the rapid and blitz tiebreak was anything but. Vachier-Lagrave struck first, winning a good game with White in a Closed Ruy Lopez with 6.d3. (In fact, all the games where MVL had White went that way.) Aronian needed to win to stay alive, and win he did - quickly. In a 3.f3 Anti-Gruenfeld turned some sort of Modern Benoni, Aronian went for the jugular. His 15.Bc4 was a fascinating novelty, and while Vachier-Lagrave played six good moves in a row, the 7th move, 21...g5, was an error. That put him at death's door, and a further mistake on move 24 ended it.
From 25'+10" to 10'+10". Aronian started with White this time, and went for the Russian System against the Gruenfeld. His choice in this game was rather iffy, and reminiscent of his anti-Gruenfeld line in game 1: many moves of well-known theory resulting in a position that doesn't require anything special from his opponent to keep the draw. He was always comfortable and doing whatever pressing there was to be done, but MVL held the draw without slipping into danger. The next game looked similar for a while: Aronian equalized comfortably, and it looked like an easy draw was on the way. It was - until White played 27.Qxb5? That gave Black very good winning chances, but errors on moves 29 and 33 let Vachier-Lagrave escape.
On to the 5'+3" games. Aronian gave up trying to tackle the Gruenfeld and played the Barry Attack (via the London System) instead. This is a regular part of his blitz repertoire, but it's not clear that Vachier-Lagrave was well-prepared for it. Aronian got a very good position in the early middlegame, and was winning an excellently played blitz game until his 41st move. After a further error, he was even losing, but MVL returned the favor with big mistakes on moves 46 and 48, allowing Aronian to escape with a draw. Aronian again had some chances in the second blitz game, though they weren't as pronounced as in game 7. Once again, a draw resulted.
And so at long last, the tournament had its first Armageddon game. Vachier-Lagrave won the coin toss and elected to take Black. Aronian got White and five minutes; MVL Black and four minutes, with no increment for either side until move 61. (Three seconds per move after that.) Most importantly, Black received draw odds, which means that unless Aronian won the game, Vachier-Lagrave would win the match.
Aronian repeated the Barry Attack, and this time MVL was well-prepared, not only equalizing but getting the upper hand. White faced the further difficulty that the best way to neutralize Black's pressure would make the game more drawish. Fortunately for Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave played ambitiously rather than just sitting, and that gave White some chances. Practically speaking, Black lost the game on move 40, though he did get one last chance for a quasi-miraculous draw on move 54. Missing that, the game finished, oddly enough, in a queen vs. rook ending. A player can go years without reaching that ending or even seeing it in another game, but here both matches were decided in that same way.
The most important part of the World Cup has finished, as the two Candidates spots have been determined. That said, the extra $40,000 going to the winner ($120k vs. $80k) is, to borrow an old Bullwinkle joke, antihistamine money: nothing to sneeze at! The finalists have tomorrow (Friday) off, and then start their best-of-four game match on Saturday.
Today's tiebreak games are here, with my comments.
Reader Comments (2)
It's sad that Vachier-Lagrave missed Bd6. He seemed to be overexcited because of getting the upper hand with black and forgot about defense.
[DM: Where?--move 27 of the Armageddon game? That doesn't seem like a big turning point to me - the position is only equal after White plays it, and it's equal even if he doesn't. There are weightier "what if" moments in the game and throughout the match, for both players, that are weightier than this - but maybe you're referring to a different moment.]
"The lengths I will go to for a 'good' pun."
Your 'pun' seemed so-so.