The Hard Way

John B. Henderson • Feb 27, 2023

Sometimes you have to win a tournament the hard way, by doing it not once but twice - and this is exactly how Levon Aronian had to do it, as the elite-game’s now “elder statesman” rolled back not only the years but also his shirt sleeves to eventually win the inaugural WR Chess Masters in Dusseldorf, Germany.


Aronian, 40, left many of his old foes and younger generation rising stars trailing in his wake by storming into a one-point lead over the field. Victory was tantalisingly within his grasp going into the homestretch of the final three rounds - but Aronian suffered a dramatic reversal of fortunes in round 7 during a cruel psychological teasing from Ian Nepomniachtchi following a false three-fold repetition claim.

Loosing the plot amidst all the mindgames, Aronian went on to blunder big-time with the win finally waking the sleeping Russian (playing under the neutral FIDE flag) bear from his slumber. And in the final round, as co-leaders Aronian and Indian teen Gukesh D bailed out with a tame 18-move GM draw, with the oldest and the youngest participants in the tournament instead opting to take the fight to the tiebreak, leaving Nepo in need of a win to join them. 


But after a near six-hour struggle, the German teenage local hero, Vincent Keymer, looked set to hold Nepo to a draw…right up until the fateful moment when he too blundered with the all-too-tempting human pawn push of 59.a5? leading to today’s diagram. The a-pawn is indeed Keymer’s ace in the hole, but this was the wrong time to be pushing it!


It didn’t take long for Nepo to pounce with 59…Qxh4+ 2.Kg1 Qe1+ 3.Kh2 g5! And White’s doomed, as it doesn’t just set-up the mating plan of …Nf7-h6-g4+, it also provides the ideal safe haven for the Black king to shield from the queen checks. Keymer continued with 62.Qc7 pinning the knight, but there followed 63…Qh4+ winning the d-pawn, and then, by pushing his g-pawn, Nepo somehow found himself to be the recipient of a miracle win to make it a three-way playoff for the title.


But revenge proved to be sweet for an upbeat and more confident Aronian in the ensuing three-way tiebreak, as he sprinted to a perfect 3/3 by beating Nepo and Gukesh D (twice) to capture the €40,000 first prize and the inaugural WR Chess Masters title at the second time of asking.

Final standings:

1-3. I. Nepomniachtchi (FIDE), Gukesh D (India), L. Aronian* (USA) 5½/9; 4. W. So (USA) 4½; 5-10. JK.Duda (Poland), V. Keymer (Germany), A. Giri (Netherlands), N. Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), A. Esipenko (FIDE), R. Praggnanandhaa (India) 5. 


Levon Aronian with the winner's trophy. | © Lennart Ootes / WR Chess

GM Ian Nepomniachtchi - GM Levon Aronian

WR Chess Masters TB, (2.1)

English Opening

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.a3 A modest little move that's not the most testing in the English Four Knights, but it can often allow for a reversed Sicilian Taimanov/Kan of some description. 4...d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Qc2 Nxc3 7.bxc3 Bd6 8.e3 0-0 9.d4 Bg4 10.Bd3 Bxf3 11.gxf3 Qh4! Stopping Nepo from launching right into an all-out attack by throwing 'Harry the h-pawn' up the board. 12.Bb2 g6 13.d5 Na5 Superficially, Nepo looks to have the upper-hand with his attack and the bishop-pair - but such is Black's solid structure with no pawn weaknesses, that Aronian has the promise of the better prospects if he can successfully exchange a few pieces. 14.c4 b6 15.0-0-0 Nb7 Not so much a retreat but rather heading for the ideal knight outpost on c5 - and with it, Nepo decides that he now has to go all-in with the attack rather than being pushed into a dreadful ending with his wrecked pawn structure. 16.Rdg1 Nc5 17.Bf1 f5 18.Rg3 Rae8 19.Rhg1 Rf7 20.Kb1 Kf8! With all of White's pieces committed to the kingside attack, Aronian, very calmly, comes up with a solution that another Armenian chess hero would have been proud of: a Tigran Petrosian-like king march over to safety on the queenside! 21.Rh3 Qf6 22.Be2 Ke7 23.Bd1 Kd8 You got to think that somewhere celestially above, Petrosian had to have a knowing smile of admiration on his face. 24.Qe2 Qe7 25.Bc2 Kc8 With Aronian's king run to the queenside complete, he now sets about looking for the breakthrough to expose Nepo's wrecked pawn structure. 26.Ka2 Qd7 27.Rhg3 f4! 28.Rg4 e4! Now the breakthrough comes, totally wrecking White's position and pawn structure. 29.exf4 exf3 Slightly more accurate was 29...Rfe7 with the follow-up plan of ...exf3 and ...Ne4 that leaves all of White's vulnerable pawns easy pickings. 30.Qxf3 Kb7 31.f5 Best was 31.Bd4! h5 32.Rh4 Qe7! 33.Bxg6 Qxh4 34.Bxf7 Re4! 35.Bxc5 Rxf4 36.Qg3 Qf6 37.Qg7 Bxc5 38.Qxf6 Rxf6 39.Bxh5 Rxf2+ 40.Kb3 Rxh2 41.Rg5 Rh3+ 42.Kc2 Rxa3 where Black has an extra pawn and a passed a-pawn - but with all the pawns on the queenside and opposite-coloured-bishops on the board, this is not an easy endgame to convert for the win. 31...Be5 32.d6+ c6 33.Bxe5 Rxe5 34.Rd1 gxf5 35.Rg8? The decisive blunder. After 35.Rgd4 over-protecting the d6-pawn, White would be in a better place to hold. 35...Qe6 Now simply ...Rd7 will corral the d6-pawn with a won endgame. 36.Qc3 Rd7 37.Kb1 Ne4 38.Bxe4 fxe4 39.Qd4 Qxg8 40.Qxe5 Qxc4 Now Aronian has revenge over Nepo, as he picks off all of his opponent's hanging pawns. 41.Qg3 Qe6 42.Kb2 c5! The final touch of elan from Aronian, as his wandering king puts the boot in with ...Kc6 and the d6-pawn falls, and the game not long afterwards. 43.Qf4 Rf7 44.Qe3 Kc6 45.Kb1 Rd7 46.Qf4 Qb3+ 0-1 Nepo resigns, as after 47...Qxa3+ Aronian will come back to e6 (either via ...Qb3+ or ...Qa2+) for seconds to pick-off the d6-pawn.

The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • 02 Oct, 2023
Well, well, well. After rampaging his way through many of the finals and opponents throughout the 2023 Champions Chess Tour, Magnus Carlsen’s “final boss” reign came to a screeching halt in what proved to be an enthralling AI Cup Grand Final on Friday, as the favourite was beaten not once but in three games, and over two matches, by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who sensationally grabbed the last remaining spot in the Champions Tour Final in December. Earlier, Carlsen had defeated MVL in the final of the winners’ bracket, before the Frenchman gained the right to a rematch in the double-elimination contest by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the losers’ bracket. In the Grand Final, buoyed up and firing on all cylinders, MVL beat Carlsen by a 2½-1½ score.

We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • 29 Sep, 2023
The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • 27 Sep, 2023
Fans were treated to arguably the greatest online rivalry in chess history recently, with the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship Grand Final showdown between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura seeing the Norwegian narrowly snatch victory by a solitary win to end the American speed maven’s hopes of a sixth successive victory. But Carlsen’s narrow win left the salivating fans feeling they’d been denied seeing this epic gladiatorial speed contest going into overtime - but they didn’t have to wait long for the rivalry redux, as a couple of days later, both Carlsen and Nakamura went head-to-head yet again in the opening day of the AI Cup, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season.

Bossing It

By John B. Henderson • 25 Sep, 2023
Magnus Carlsen more than lived up to his self-proclamation of being “The Final Boss of Chess” with a revenge-is-sweet narrow victory over fellow chess influencer Hikaru Nakamura, as he denied his long-time arch-rival a sixth successive Chess.com Speed Chess Championship title last Friday. Last year, it was Nakamura who narrowly squeaked home by one point - this time, in yet another thrilling match consisting of three different speed limits - 5+1, 3+1 and 1+1 (more commonly known as ‘bullet’) - between the two speed titans, it again ended with the same scoreline, though this time seeing Carlsen triumph by a solitary win after two pulsating hours of thrilling play, as he took the $150,000 2023 Speed Chess Championship presented by Coinbase, 13.5-12.5.

Death, Taxes, Magnus & Hikaru

By John B. Henderson • 22 Sep, 2023
With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • 19 Sep, 2023
India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • 14 Sep, 2023
“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

No Country For Young Men

By John B. Henderson • 11 Sep, 2023
With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title. Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • 08 Sep, 2023
The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

Me & The Kids

By John B. Henderson • 04 Sep, 2023
The fifth and latest leg of the Champions Chess Tour , the Julius Baer Generations Cup more than lived up to its name with the world No.1, Magnus Carlsen, after overpowering Alireza Firouzja in the winners’ final, to effortlessly cruise his way into the Grand Final, declaring: “It’s just me against the kids now!” After three clean kills that included a brace of back-to-back 2½-½ victories over Iranian Amin Tabatabaei and his old title foe Caruana, Carlsen proceeded to sweep Firouzja 3-0 to reach the Grand Final of the contest - but it wasn’t lost on the “old man” that non of his old rivals were left in the competition, and that meant that Denis Lazavik (16), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (18), and Firouzja (20) were the only three left standing to see who would go forward to meet him in the Grand Final.
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