Aronian Wins First Round, Tal Memorial 2010

6 November 2010, Kuala Lumpur – The Tal Memorial 2010 (4-14 November 2010) in Moscow has had its first round played last night. It has an average rating of 2757 and regarded as a Category 21 level tournament, one of the highest category. It’s a 10-player single round-robin one rest day, on November 9th. The rate of play is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the subsequent 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.

GM Aronian played as white against GM Kramnik in the first round. The Queen’s Gambit Declined, Ragozin Defense transpired.

 

[Event "ICC-Tal Memorial 2010, Moscow"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2010.11.06"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Aronian, Levon"]
[Black "Kramnik, Vladimir"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D38"]

{D38: Queen's Gambit Declined: Ragozin Defence (4 Nf3 Bb4)} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6
3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 h6 7. Bh4 c5 8. dxc5 Nbd7 9. Rc1 Qa5 {
last book move} 10. a3 Bxc3+ 11. Rxc3 {White has the pair of bishops} Ne4 12.
b4 Nxc3 13. Qa1 (13. bxa5 $2 {is tempting but does not stand up to the reality
of the position} Nxd1 14. Kxd1 Nxc5 $19) 13... Qa4 14. Qxc3 O-O 15. e3 a5 16.
b5 Nxc5 (16... Re8 $142 $5 $11 {should be investigated more closely}) 17. Qxc5
$16 Bf5 18. Qd4 (18. Qc1 $5 Bg4 19. Bg3 $16) 18... Qxa3 $14 19. Be2 Qb4+ 20.
Qxb4 axb4 21. Nd4 Ra1+ 22. Bd1 Bh7 23. Nb3 (23. O-O Rc8 24. f4 Bd3 $15) 23...
Rb1 24. Nd2 Rb2 25. Bg3 Rc8 26. Be5 {White threatens to win material: Be5xb2}
Ra2 27. Nb3 {The knight blocks b4} Bc2 28. Bxc2 Rcxc2 29. O-O f6 30. Bd4 {A
valuable piece} Ra3 {Black threatens to win material: Ra3xb3} 31. Na1 Rd2 32.
h3 Rad3 33. Kh2 Ra3 34. b6 (34. Kg1 Kf7 $15) 34... h5 35. Rb1 Rxf2 36. Nb3 Raa2
37. Rg1 Kh7 (37... Rac2 38. Nc5 Rfe2 39. h4 $11) 38. Nc5 {White threatens to
win material: Nc5xb7} Rfd2 $4 {letting the wind out of his own sails} (38...
Rad2 $142 $11 {would hold out}) 39. Nxb7 $18 b3 $2 (39... Ra8 40. Nc5 Rb8 41.
Na6 $18) 40. Nc5 b2 (40... Ra8 {cannot change what is in store for ?} 41. Nd7
f5 42. b7 $18) 41. Rb1 1-0

 

The chess positions after 10…Bxc3, white played 11.Rxc3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White played 41.Rb1 and black resigned. The passed pawn at b6 is about to reach its queening square uncontested. While White has two pieces guarding the a1 queening square and black has no guards at the b8 queening square.

Even if black plays 41…Ra8, then black can pull the knight to 42. Nd7 as a back-up plan.

 

Scores Of Round 1, Tal Memorial 2010 shown (courtesy of chessvibes.com) in table below.