Epress.am News from Armenia
In the tenth and penultimate round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in Monaco, Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian kept his one-point lead over Magnus Carlsen with a 1½-½ win over Veselin Topalov. Magnus Carlsen defeated Alexander Grischuk 1½-½.
With one round to go Aronian has already won the blindfold competition, while Carlsen cannot be caught anymore in the rapid standings, reports the Amber Chess Tournament official website.
The € 1,000 Game of the Day Prize was awarded to Magnus Carlsen for his rapid win over Alexander Grischuk.
The blindfold game between Veselin Topalov and Levon Aronian was a wildly exciting fight that could have gone either way. Topalov’s 12.Ne5 was a novelty that had not only been studied by the white player, but also by his opponent! Nevertheless the Armenian grandmaster got into serious trouble. According to Topalov Black was lost after 14…Nxc3 and Aronian admitted that he was pretty upset when he reached the position after 21…Ne6. But it was here that Topalov gave the tournament leader a helping hand. The Bulgarian grandmaster wanted to decide the game in great style, going straight for the black king with 22.f4, where he could have gotten a winning advantage with 22.Bf5 (the move Aronian was afraid of during the game) 22…Qg7 23.Qe7. Topalov let his opponent off the hook for good with 33.Rf7+. Now gradually Black got the upper hand and although there were several moments where it was clear that the players were no longer sure where the pieces were, Aronian scored a highly important point.
In the rapid game Aronian got excellent chances from the opening, until he played the ‘terrible’ 16.h4. According to the Armenian grandmaster, Black’s position was ‘extremely suspicious’ after 8…e4 (“This move just cannot be good”) and he blamed himself for not exploiting his advantage. Topalov gave him a second chance with 19…cxd5 (he should have played 19…Nxf3+), but committed another inaccuracy with the “ridiculous” 27.Qd4. In the rook endgame Aronian didn’t want to take any risks anymore in view of the standings and after 37 moves the game ended in a draw.