Chess Classic: Aronian dominates in Chess960

Chess Classic Mainz 2009 The 2009 Chess Classic will take place from July 27 to August 2 in the Rheingoldhalle of the Congress Centre, Hilton Hotel in Mainz, Germany. The event includes tournaments and Opens in traditional and Random Chess, with stars like the current World Champion Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian of Armenia, strong Russian junior GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and top German GM Arkadij Naiditsch. Schedule below.

After the traditional opening press conference on Monday there was a simul with Levon Aronian. The top Armenian GM took his 40 opponents to task, winning 37:3.

Aronian did not lose a single game and conceded only six draws. Fred Böttcher, Manfred Herbold (Schachhaus Ludwigshafen), Dr. Matthias Kribben (Zitadelle Spandau), Ulrich Gass (SC Eppingen) Timo Spiess (Bochumer SV 02) and Bernd Grill (SV Ebersbach) managed to take half a point away from the grandmaster.

The last game of the simultaneous display: Aronian won +34 =6 –0.

The day ended with some fine wining and dining at the Champions Dinner. For the gourmets: sliced baliksalmon with caviar was served, followed by lamb with lavender jus with quiche of pointed cabbage. The strawberry salsa with white chocolate mousse was a great dessert.

A friendly game between the Lord Mayor of Mainz, Jens Beutel and World Champion Anand (in the background organiser Hans-Walter Schmitt). Beutel is an accomplished chess player whose top rating was 2250.

The next day, when 71 young talents in the third Mini-ORDIX Open came to the Rheingoldhalle with their parents and trainers, they could meet the world champion and some of the best players in the world in the popular first signing session of the week.

In the above picture we see Ian Nepomniachtchi, Sergei Movsesian, Levon Aronian, Victor Bologan, Arkadij Naiditsch and Viswanathan Anand ready to sign pictures, T-shirts, posters and books and anything else for the excited youngsters. Hikaru Nakamura had to cope with the time difference and did not make it on time. However, in Mainz grandmasters are approachable and it is not difficult to snatch an autograph from a top player.

In the evening four stars took part in an event that featured random chess – where the starting position – one of 960 possible configurations – is revealed to the players just before the game begins.

6th Chess960 Rapid World Championship – 28-30 July 2009

Rapid chess, 20min/game + 5s/move. Course of events: Tue 28 July: first set of rounds 1, 2 and 3; Wed, 29 July: second set of rounds 4, 5 and 6, possible tiebreak; Thu, 30 July: four-game matches, big and small final, possible tiebreak, award ceremony. Start time of rounds: 18:30h, 19:30h, 20:30h, final additionally: 21:30h. Participants:

First day: Tactics Rule

By Johannes Fischer

Tactics rule. As Viktor Bologan explained in yesterday’s press conference, in Chess960 the random position of the pieces simply forces you to think of everything. In interviews Levon Aronian also stressed how important tactics are in Chess960. The first three rounds of the Chess960 Rapid World Championship confirmed this view. The games featured quite a number of unusual tactical situations – and it was Levon Aronian who handled them best.
Right from the start he showed how good he coped with them. In his first round game against Nakamura he gave his queen for two rooks after just a couple of moves and afterwards he simply brought his pieces to strong squares. Nakamura came under pressure and had to give an exchange but then Aronian used his material plus to mate the enemy king with rook and two knights.

The game between Sergei Movsesian and Viktor Bologan was also characterized by tactics. Tactical tricks gave Bologan an advantage, and a tactical trick allowed Movsesian to extricate himself from a difficult position. However, he could not solve all of his problems and Black still had some pressure. This in turn provoked an inaccuracy from Movsesian which Bologan used to secure a winning position and soon after the point.

However, after this promising start followed a sobering second round, in which Bologan miscalculated and fell victim to a violent mating attack from Aronian.

Levon Aronian - Viktor Bologan
Chess960 Rapid World Championship Chess Classic Mainz 2009 (2.1)

1.e4 e5 2.d4 d6 3.f3 Ng6 4.Bc4 c6 5.Bb3 Nc7 6.Ng3 exd4 7.Bxd4 Ne6 8.Bc3 Nc5 9.Nf5 Nxb3 10.axb3 f6 11.Qe3 Qc7 12.Nd3 Ne5 13.Be1 g6 14.Nd4 Bf7 15.Bf2 Bg7

Now White played 16.Rxa7 Rxa7 17.Nb5 cxb5 18.Qxa7+ Kc8 19.Nxe5 fxe5 20.Bb6 Qe7 21.Qa8+ Kd7 22.Bxd8 and Black resigned: 1-0.

With two out of two Aronian showed why he was considered to be the favorite to win this tournament. The secret favorite Hikaru Nakamura fared much worse. After his first round loss against Aronian things also went wrong against Movsesian. The American played with White, built up pressure in the opening, avoided a repetition and a draw – only to lose his way and the game later on. "After ten moves I was almost winning, but then I got careless,“ he remarked during the press conference after the game.

Top American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in Mainz

However, he managed to pull himself together in the third round and won with Black against Bologan. Both players were fond of the enemy pawns, but Nakamura managed to snatch one more pawn than his opponent, which gave him a clear endgame advantage that he finally converted to a full point.

The game between Movsesian and Aronian quickly developed into a sharp encounter. Both players wanted to gain the initiative and did not shy away from material sacrifices. At first it seemed as if Movsesian, who played with White, set the pace, but the tide turned after a strong counter by Aronian.

Sergei Movsesian - Levon Aronian
Chess960 Rapid World Championship Chess Classic Mainz 2009 (3.1)

1.b4 Nf6 2.Ng3 e6 3.e4 b6 4.Bf3 Ng6 5.h4 d6 6.d4 d5 7.h5 dxe4 8.Be2 Nf8 9.h6 Rg8 10.c4 c5 11.bxc5 bxc5 12.Rxb8 Qxb8 13.d5

Suddenly White’s position was critical and Movsesian’s search for counterplay only accelerated his end. There followed: 13...e3 14.Bd1 exf2+ 15.Kxf2 gxh6 16.N1e2 Ng4+ 17.Kg1 Bg5 18.Ba4+ Ke7 19.Qc2 Be3+ 20.Kf1 Bf4 21.Nf5+ exf5 22.Rh3 Be5 23.Nc3 Kf6 24.Qd3 Rg5 25.d6 Kg7 26.d7 Nxd7 27.Bxd7 Ld4 28.Ke2 Nf2 0-1.

This round led to an amusing situation: three players with one out of three share places two to four and will fight hard to qualify for the final tomorrow. At the same time Aronian scored 3.0/3 and is the sole and dominant leader and more than ever favorite to successfully defend his title of Chess960 World Champion.

"All games were hard and tough fights,“ Aronian said during the press conference. Maybe – but he still seemed to play all of them with effortless and playful ease. Often a sign of real great skill.

All pictures by Christian Bossert for Chess Tigers/Chess Classic

Schedule of remaining events

Links Official web site: in German and in English Event overview Detailled schdeule in PDF: Part one + Part two Daily schedule of events in PDF Registration: FiNet Chess960 Open ORDIX Open Mini FiNet + Mini Ordix Accommodation ChessBase reports Chess Classic 2002, 2003 Chess Classic 2004 + the Carmen Kass story Chess Classic 2005 Chess Classic 2006 Chess Classic 2007 Chess Classic 2008 Chess Classic 2009