The oldest player in the field
While the likes of Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa continue to shine as they climb the rating ladder in classical chess, Levon Aronian, at 39, shows he is still one of the strongest players in the world in fast-paced time control. The Armenian-born star won the FTX Road to Miami online event after beating 23-year-old Wei Yi in the finals.
Considered a master of prophylaxis, Petrosian sensed dangers long before they actually became acute on the board. In his prime, Petrosian was almost invincible. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Tigran Petrosian.Aronian, who played from Yerevan, had a slow start, as he lost three out of his first five games in the preliminaries. Better performances in days 3 and 4 allowed him to reach the knockout, but only as the seventh seed (out of 8). After the scare, however, the US representative raised his playing level significantly, only conceding one loss in his matches against Arjun Erigaisi, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Wei Yi combined.
The tournament winner confessed afterwards:
I didn’t really deserve to be in the top eight because my play was very, very poor, but after that, I think I got myself together and I played better.
His victory in the final match was rather convincing. In the first set, he got a 2½-1½ win after saving a position in game 3 and beating his young opponent in game 4. A more lopsided second set saw him winning twice with black to secure overall victory. In tennis terms, Aronian got something resembling a 7-5 6-2 victory.
Much like Aronian, Wei gained a ticket to participate in the FTX Crypto Cup set to kick off on August 15 in Miami. Due to the strict Covid-19 restrictions in China, the commentators asked the player from Yancheng whether he will make his way to the coastal American city. Fortunately, he responded that he thinks he will be able to make the trip. We certainly hope to see him showcasing his tactical, fighting style in the next tournament of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.
Analyses by GM Karsten Müller
In the first game of the first set, Wei Yi was a pawn down and had an inferior pawn structure in a knight vs bishop endgame. The Chinese, however, prevented Aronian’s king from joining the fight and escaped with a draw.
Two more draws followed, but then came the decisive game which allowed Aronian to go into day 2 of the finals with an advantage. The Armenian made the most of the initiative in an interesting position with opposite-coloured bishops on the board.
Aronian won twice with black in the second set. In game 1, his opponent faltered in a rook endgame. This error turned out to be crucial going forward, as the Chinese was forced to win at least two games to take the match to tiebreaks.
All games from the final match
1.c4 Nf6 2.g3 e6 3.Bg2 d5 4.Nf3 Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.b3 b6 7.Bb2 Bb7 8.e3 c5 9.Qe2 Nc6 10.Rd1 Qc8 11.d4 Rd8 12.Nbd2 dxc4 13.bxc4 Qc7 14.Rac1 Rac8 15.Bh3 Ba6 16.Nb3 Qb8 17.Ng5 Rc7 18.dxc5 Rxd1+ 19.Rxd1 bxc5 20.Qc2 h6 21.Bxf6 hxg5 22.Bxe7 Nxe7 23.Qe4 Qc8 24.Rd6 Rc6 25.Qd3 Rxd6 26.Qxd6 Nf5 27.Bxf5 exf5 28.Qd5 Qe6 29.Nxc5 Qxd5 30.cxd5 Bc4 31.d6 Kf8 32.a3 g4 33.Kg2 Be2 34.h4 Ke8 35.h5 Kd8 36.Kh2 Kc8 37.Kg1 Kd8 38.Kg2 Kc8 39.f4 gxf3+ 40.Kf2 Bd1 41.e4 fxe4 42.Ke3 f2 43.Kxf2 Bxh5 44.Ke3 Bf3 45.Kf4 Kd8 46.Ke3 Kc8 47.Kf4 Kd8 48.Ke3 Ke8 49.Kd4 f5 50.a4 Kf7 51.a5 Kf6 52.Ke3 Bh5 53.Kd4 Bf3 54.Ke3 g5 55.Kd4 Bg2 56.Ke3 Bh1 57.Kd4 Bf3 58.Ke3 Bh5 59.Kd4 Bf7 60.g4 fxg4 61.Nxe4+ Ke6 62.Nxg5+ Kxd6 63.Nxf7+ Kc6 64.Kc4 g3 65.Ne5+ Kd6 66.Nf3 g2 67.Kb5 Kc7 68.Kc5 Kb7 69.Ng1 Ka6 70.Kb4 Kb7 71.Kb5 Kc7 72.a6 Kd6 73.Ne2 Kc7 74.Kc5 Kd7 75.Ng1 Kc7 76.Nh3 Kd7 77.Ng1 Kc7 78.Nh3 Kd7 79.Ng1 ½–½
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| Aronian,L | 2775 | Wei,Y | 2727 | ½–½ | 2022 | A14 | FTX Road to Miami KO 2022 | 1.1 |
| Wei,Y | 2727 | Aronian,L | 2775 | ½–½ | 2022 | D20 | FTX Road to Miami KO 2022 | 1.2 |
| Aronian,L | 2775 | Wei,Y | 2727 | ½–½ | 2022 | A14 | FTX Road to Miami KO 2022 | 1.3 |
| Wei,Y | 2727 | Aronian,L | 2775 | 0–1 | 2022 | D39 | FTX Road to Miami KO 2022 | 1.4 |
| Wei,Y | 2727 | Aronian,L | 2775 | 0–1 | 2022 | E24 | FTX Road to Miami KO 2022 | 2.1 |
| Aronian,L | 2775 | Wei,Y | 2727 | ½–½ | 2022 | B07 | FTX Road to Miami KO 2022 | 2.2 |
| Wei,Y | 2727 | Aronian,L | 2775 | 0–1 | 2022 | E00 | FTX Road to Miami KO 2022 | 2.3 |
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