Aronian Again Settled for Draw. Today He Might Make it to ‘Sudden Death’

In all four games of the first round of quarterfinals at the 2011 FIDE Candidates Matches, Armenian GM Levon Aronian, playing against Russia’s Alexander Grischuk settled on a draw (1/2-1/2).

The competition consists of a series of short knockout matches, with the quarter-finals and semi-finals being over four games, and the final over six games. The time control will be 40 moves in two hours, followed by 20 moves in an hour, and then 15 minutes plus a 30-second increment for the remainder of the game.

Aronian, the winner of the FIDE Grand-Prix 2008–2009, was playing black in game 4 of round 1 yesterday when the game ended on the 17th move.

The winner of the Aronian-Grischuk pairing will be decided today at Tiebreaks, which is played at a rate of 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment. If scores are still level there will be pairs of blitz games at a rate of 5 minutes plus a 3-second increment. If the scores are still level after 5 pairs of blitz games, then there will be a sudden-death game (5 mins v 4 mins, with a 3 second increment after move 60).

The winner of the pairing Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and  Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) will likewise be decided this way.

After today, there will be two free days, after which round 2 will begin on May 12. The 2011 FIDE Candidates Matches runs from May 3–27 in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia, with 8 players competing for the chance to be the next challenger for Vishy Anand’s world title.