Catching up on the Airthings Masters: The Aronian-Rajdabov Final Starts Tomorrow (Saturday)
While Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov are obviously great players, it's still surprising that they're the finalists of this 15'+10" tournament, rather than, say, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, or Wesley So. Are the times a-changing?
When I first mentioned the event it was the day after Christmas, after the first of three day of the preliminary stage of the tournament. Because it was set up so that eight of the 12 players would qualify for the knockout stage, it was unsurprising that the early action featured a lot of draws and safe chess. Day two was even worse, with only three decisive games out of 24. Only on day three did the energy increase, with eight of the 16 games finishing with a winner. Here's how things wound up, in tiebreak order:
1-3. Carlsen, So, Nakamura 6.5 (of 11)
4-5. Nepomniachtchi, Radjabov 6
6. Aronian 5.5
7-10. Vachier-Lagrave, Dubov, Harikrishna, Grischuk 5
11-12. Giri, Anton 4.5
Vachier-Lagrave and Dubov made it; Harikrishna and Grischuk did not. This would have been especially painful for Grischuk, as he lost in the last round, with White, to MVL.
The quarterfinals (and the semis) were two-day affairs. Both days consisted of four-game mini-matches, and if the overall score was 1-1 a blitz tiebreak followed by an Armageddon game, if necessary, would determine the winner.
The pairings followed by usual KO format: 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, etc., so the pairings were Carlsen vs. Dubov, So vs. MVL, Nakamura vs. Aronian, and Nepo vs. Radjabov.
In the Carlsen-Dubov match, Carlsen won game 1...and that was it! Dubov won game 3 and the first day's match was split, while Dubov won games 1 and 3 to go with a draw in the second game, and the top seed was shown an early exit.
How about So? Day 1 was a disaster for him. He managed to draw his black games, but lost twice with the white pieces to go down 3-1. He came back on day 2, winning the first game and drawing the next three to equalize the match. It was on to the blitz tiebreak, and the pattern repeated itself: Vachier-Lagrave won first, but So won the rematch to force an Armageddon game. So enjoyed an edge with White, but couldn't convert it, and with the draw MVL won the match and advanced to the semis.
But surely, you say, Nakamura would qualify for the next round? As you know from the headline, he didn't. (And don't call me "Shirley".) On day 1, Aronian's win in the second game was enough to win the first mini-match, and by winning the first two games on day 2 Aronian clinched match victory. (I'm not sure how exactly they scored the second day, as Nakamura could have split the second mini-match with two wins. Even if he had succeeded, he still would have lost the overall match, so those games weren't played.)
Finally, the Nepomniachtchi-Radjabov match came down to the wire. The first day finished with four draws, but day two had some blood. Radjabov won the first game with the white pieces, and in a must-win situation in game four Nepo ground out a win in an opposite-colored bishop endgame. The blitz playoff was even more dramatic, with first Nepomniachtchi and then Radjabov winning with Black. Finally, an Armageddon game, and since Radjabov had the black pieces the draw gave him match victory.
On to the semis. On day 1, Aronian won games 1 and 4 against MVL while Radjabov won games 3 and 4 against Dubov, and both day 1 winners finished ahead of schedule on day 2 as well. Radjabov won the first two games to clinch, while Aronian drew the first two games before winning game three to punch his ticket to the final.
The two-day final starts tomorrow, and if any of their games aren't interesting cheer up: there's a playoff for third place between MVL and Dubov as well.
Event website here.