Magnus Carlsen's Most Spectacular Defeat - Top 10 of the 2010s - Aronian vs. Carlsen, 2017
The 2010s were the decade of Magnus Carlsen. Nearly from start to finish, he was the undisputed #1 player in the world. However, in my #9 game of the 2010s, Levon Aronian (always a fierce Carlsen rival), catches Carlsen in a spectacular opening line and wins a fantastic chess game featuring exchange sacs, trapped queens, and Greek gifts.
Top 10 Games of the 2010s
- #1: Aronian vs. Anand, 2013 (blog)
- #2: Wei Yi vs. Bruzon Bautista, 2015 (blog)
- #3: Alphazero vs. Stockfish, 2017 (blog)
- #4: Aronian vs. Kramnik, 2018 (blog)
- #5: Carlsen vs. Karjakin, 2013 (blog)
- #6: Gelfand vs. Nakamura, 2010 (blog)
- #7: Dubov vs. Giri, 2019 (blog)
- #8: Bai Jinshi vs. Ding Liren, 2017 (blog)
- #9: Aronian vs. Carlsen, 2017
- #10: Firouzja vs. Zarkovic, 2019 (blog)
Although the game looks one-sided at points, Carlsen is incredibly resilient and only repeated vigorous and accurate play from Aronian is enough to bring home the full point in this epic struggle.
Lessons:
- Don't just trust the computer eval.
- Even world champions fall for the Greek Gift (but rarely).
- Great players have to be beaten across multiple phases.
My brief annotations are below.
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I'm the VP of Chess and Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2014, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.
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