Norway Chess, Round 7: Aronian climbs to second place

Ding Liren the best in Classical

After two rounds with all draws in Classical, Ding Liren ended the streak of peaceful results with his win over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Fabiano Caruana, meanwhile, had a big advantage with White against Vishy Anand, but failed to convert it into a full point. It was not a total disaster for Caruana, though, as he beat the Indian in Armageddon. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian also got one and a half points after winning their mini-matches in sudden death.

Results of Round 7 - Classical

Had the organizers not put forth the novel format used this year in Stavanger, Ding Liren would now be the leader on 4½ out of 7 (Carlsen is on 4 out of 7 in Classical). Of course, we should take into account the fact that some players might have used a different strategy given the format — i.e. playing safe with Black if they think they have good chances of drawing in Armageddon, or playing more riskily than usual with White to avoid being obliged to win in the blitz tie-breaker. Nonetheless, Ding Liren's performance has added eight points to his rating and has got him closer to world's number two Fabiano Caruana (Ding beat Caruana in round three).

Ding Liren is eyeing the second place in the world ratings list | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Against Mamedyarov, Ding played 3.f3 against the Grünfeld and recent theory was followed until move 21, when the Chinese finally played a novelty. Throughout the battle that ensued, Ding Liren, more than once, offered pawn sacrifices to clear paths for his active pieces. For example, on move 22:

Fighting the Grünfeld with g3

The Grünfeld Defence was invented by the famous Austrian Grandmaster Ernst Grünfeld in the early twenties of the last century. One of the first reactions to it came from the great Akiba Rubinstein - the g3 system, fianchettoing the bishop to g2. After that many systems were tried to refute the Grünfeld and nothing really worked. So, Rubinstein's recipe remains a very important positional approach against this dynamic opening.

22.e5 opens up the c2-h7 diagonal for the light-squared bishop — after 22...♝xe5 Ding played 23.♗d3. The Chinese grandmaster continued to play actively, using his pair of bishops to create threats against the weakened black king. Shak's position did not take long to collapse:

Resignation came after 33.♖d6 ♝xd3 34.♖xf6, when the weakness on the dark-squared long diagonal means Black will end up a piece down if he wants to avoid mate.

It was a fine win by Ding Liren | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Also in Classical, Fabiano Caruana got a huge attack against Vishy Anand out of an Open Ruy Lopez. The American, however, missed many chances to convert his edge into a full point. On move 32, for example, he could have got a major material advantage:

Winning with the Ruy Lopez Vol. 2: Steinitz, Anti-Marshall, Open & Co.

On his second Ruy Lopez DVD Viktor Bologan shows how things continue after 3...a6 4.Ba4. Black has some possible deviations before we reach the main lines which are dealt with in Part 3. These include the solid Steinitz Defence and the Archangelsk Variation which has again been brought up to date.

It is hard to understand why Caruana did not play 32.♗f7 check, when his pawn on e6 would have survived and Black would have been forced to give up his queen in order to stay alive — a sample line is 32...♚h8 33.♗xg5 ♛e5 34.♗f4, and if Black decides to save his queen White plays ♗h6 with decisive effect. Fabiano played the also winning 32.♕f3, but this move did not give him a clear-cut plan to convert his advantage. 

The American lost the thread quickly afterwards, and Vishy managed to get a balanced position. In the end, the Indian even got his d-pawn to the second rank, which resulted in Caruana needing to be careful to finally get the draw.

Still the second highest-rated player in the world, Fabiano Caruana | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Armageddon tie-breakers

In round seven, two out of four sudden death games ended up with White getting an obligatory win and the other two were drawn, favouring Black. 

Results of Round 7 - Armageddon

Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian were the ones that got safe draws with the black pieces to collect the one and a half points. For Aronian, this result was particularly important as he defeated Yu Yangyi, who was in sole second place until Tuesday — Levon now leapfrogged the Chinese and became Magnus' closest chaser.

Click or tap on the second game to replay it on the board

World champion Magnus Carlsen now leads by two points | Photo: Lennart Ootes

After failing to convert a huge advantage, Caruana got to recover mentally to take down Vishy with White in Armageddon. While most of Anand's pieces were sitting on the eighth rank, Fabiano had many ports of entry into Black's position. On move 35, he also started mobilizing his far advanced pawns:

Developing the initiative

Dynamic play is what makes your chess effective and most importantly fun! Timur Gareyev shows severeal examples which aspects are important to remember when seizing for the initiative!

After 35.f5 — and 38...e6 some moves later — White obliterated Black's defences. Anand resigned shortly afterwards.

Vishy Anand could not avoid a loss in Armageddon | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Also with the white pieces, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave got mini-match victory in Armageddon. His victim was Alexander Grischuk, who, after getting second place at the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix in Moscow, perhaps arrived in Norway too tired to perform at his usual level. At the same time, MVL's performance in Stavanger has not been his best showing either — the Frenchman did get to beat Carlsen and win the blitz opener, but his win over Grishcuk was the first one in the "official" tournament.

Vachier-Lagrave gave up an exchange in order to keep advancing his queenside pawns freely:

The Art of the Exchange Sacrifice

People in Greenland can differentiate between 36 kinds of snow; the Swedish International Master Ari Ziegler will teach you to differentiate between 20 kinds of exchange sacrifice. His systematic approach to exchange sacrifices will rapidly enhance your understanding of one of the most exciting and difficult aspects of chess. Your widened horizon will help you to be able to follow the games of top GMs better and also to see more options in your own positions, which in turn will improve your chess results.

After 26.♖xc4 dxc4 27.♗xc6 ♛b8 28.♕xc4 White's a and b-pawns are set up to wreak havoc on Black's position. Grischuk resigned on move 35.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Round 7 round-up show

GM Danny King recaps the action from round five

Standings after Round 7

All games - Classical

All games - Armageddon

Links

• Official site
• Round 1: Five draws, five times Armageddon
• Round 2: Mamedyarov grabs the lead
• Round 3: Carlsen leads
• Round 4: Carlsen ahead of So and Yu Yangyi
• Round 5: Carlsen still on top, Yu Yangyi in second place
• Round 6: One-move blunders