Champions Showdown Chess 9LX: Aronian takes the lead

by Klaus Besenthal
9/13/2020 – With a run of three consecutive wins Levon Aronian has taken the lead on the second day of the 20+10 online tournament "Champions Showdown Chess 9LX". At this tournament, organized by the Saint Louis Chess Club, the Armenian grandmaster, with his now 4.5/6, has a half-point-lead on Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura. Former world champion Garry Kasparov, on the other hand, is towards the bottom of the standings after an underwhelming second matchday.

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"2020 Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX"

In this tournament, which is played in Fischer Random mode, the arrangement of the pieces on the back rank is always determined just before the start of the game - the players do not have time for preparation. It is entirely up to them how they deal with the unusual and unique starting positions.

Standings after Day 2

4. Round

 Before the round, Starting position no. 777 was determined: 

Garry Kasparov lost a piece against Fabiano Caruana - he probably had a slip-up with his mouse:

This is how the former world champion commented on his mishap:

Table White Score Fed. Rating Black Score Fed. Rating Result
1 GM Kasparov, Garry 1.5 CRO 2812 GM Caruana, Fabiano 1.5 USA 2835 0-1
2 GM Nakamura, Hikaru 1.5 USA 2736 GM Carlsen, Magnus 2.5 NOR 2863 ½-½
3 GM So, Wesley 2.0 USA 2770 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 0.0 FRA 2778 ½-½
4 GM Firouzja, Alireza 0.5 FID 2728 GM Aronian, Levon 1.5 ARM 2773 0-1
5 GM Svidler, Peter 1.5 RUS 2723 GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2.5 USA 2758 ½-½
 

5. Round

Ahead of round 5, position Nr. 476 was determined:

In this round Magnus Carlsen lost his lead after a defeat against Wesley So. In the end, the world champion could no longer mitigate the pressure on b2 and his poorly positioned knight on a4 and ended the game with an unmotivated queen move:

Table White Score Fed. Rating Black Score Fed. Rating Result
1 GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 3.0 USA 2758 GM Kasparov, Garry 1.5 CRO 2812 ½-½
2 GM Aronian, Levon 2.5 ARM 2773 GM Svidler, Peter 2.0 RUS 2723 1-0
3 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 0.5 FRA 2778 GM Firouzja, Alireza 0.5 FID 2728 0-1
4 GM Carlsen, Magnus 3.0 NOR 2863 GM So, Wesley 2.5 USA 2770 0-1
5 GM Caruana, Fabiano 2.5 USA 2835 GM Nakamura, Hikaru 2.0 USA 2736 0-1

6. Round

Round 6 was played with starting position Nr. 75

Levon Aronian was able to separate himself from his co-leaders So and Dominguez: The Armenian won against Dominguez, while So only drew against Caruana. Magnus Carlsen also quickly got back on track with his victory over Alireza Firouzja. Hikaru Nakamura made it into the pursuer's group behind Aronian with a win against Garry Kasparov.

Table White Score Fed. Rating Black Score Fed. Rating Result
1 GM Kasparov, Garry 2.0 CRO 2812 GM Nakamura, Hikaru 3.0 USA 2736 0-1
2 GM So, Wesley 3.5 USA 2770 GM Caruana, Fabiano 2.5 USA 2835 ½-½
3 GM Firouzja, Alireza 1.5 FID 2728 GM Carlsen, Magnus 3.0 NOR 2863 0-1
4 GM Svidler, Peter 2.0 RUS 2723 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 0.5 FRA 2778 0-1
5 GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 3.5 USA 2758 GM Aronian, Levon 3.5 ARM 2773 0-1

 

Games


 

Live-Commentary from the St. Louis Chess Center

Tournament page

Translation from German: Arthur Paul

Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.

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