Game of the day: the difference between a SuperGM and a 2100 elo player
The best two weeks of the year in the chess world have just started: here are the 2024 Chess Olympiad! I love this event, because is the only one where you can see top players, rising stars, young and old players of whatever rating representing their country: all in all it is the most various and particular chess tournament in the world.
In general in the first rounds we rarely see big upsets and surprises, because the favourite teams are paired with the lower rated one, but today there were a lot of interesting games, like the one between Andre Mendez Machado (FM, 2122) and Levon Aronian (GM, 2729): in my opinion this game shows the differece between a SuperGM and a much lower rated player. Here is the game!
PANAMA VS USA; Board 3: Andre Mendez Machado vs Levon Aronian
1. e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.Nc3 g6 5.e5 Nh5
5... Nh5 Is the second most popoular move, far behind 5... Ng4. It has been played in a game between Firouzja and Caruana, win by Alireza with White.
6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. O-O Ng7 8. d3 h6 9. Ne4 b6 10. Re1 Nf5
In the game between Firouzja and Caruana the knight went to e6
11. C3 g5 12. Qa4 Qc7? 13. g4!
Aronian, maybe underestimating his opponent, played inaccuratly in the opening and... blundered the knight! Yes because if 13... Ng7 14. Nd6+! The knight can't be captured (14... exd6) because of the discovered check (15. exd6) that wins the Queen; Black can only play 15... Kd8 and lose the rook with the following 16. Nxf7+.
Aronian played 12... Qc7 very quickly, probably not seeing the tactic. Now he starts to think, but at the moment he can only accept to lose his knight
13... Qb7 14. gxf5 Bxf5 15. d4 Bg4 16. Nfd2 cxd4 17. Nb3 O-O-O 18. cxd4 Kb8 19. Bd2 Bd7 20. Qa3 Bf5 21. Rac1 e6 22. Qa4 Rc8 23. Rc3 Ka8 24. Ng3 Bh3 25. Nf1 b5 26. Na5?
With a massive disadvantage on the clock, Mendez tried to simplify the position with his last move but felt for a tactic: here we can see the difference between a player like him (by the way, let's be clear, very good player, he is an FM, I'm not saying he is bad at chess) and a 2700+ player, who is not scared by complex position
26... bxa4 27. Nxb7 Bxf1!
Here is the move that Mendez missed: he wanted to capture the bishop on h3 in order to keep the piece advantage, but he forgetted that Black has a tempo to capture on f1
28. Kxf1 Kxb7 29. Rc4 Be7 30. Rxa4 Rhd8 31. Be3 c5 32. dxc5 Bxc5 33. Re4 Bb6 34. Bxb6 axb6
Now we are in a completely equal endgame, but the endgame is probably the phase of the game the SuperGM can make a lot of difference!
35. R1e2 Rd1+ 36. Kg2 h5 37. f4 g4
Aronian immediatly puts a lot of pressure with his pawns
38. Kg3 Rg8 39. R4e3??
Big mistake unfortunately by Mendez, because Black can now control the h4 square thanks to a tactic that trends to win the rook on f2
40... h4+ 41. Kg2 Rd1 42. Ree2 (the decisive mistake) h3+
Now the White king is too vulnerable
43. Kg3 Rg1+ 44. Kh4 g3 45 hxg3 R1xg3
In this position White resigned, as checkmate is unstoppable and the White rooks are completely cut out by the Black ones.
This game showed the gaps between a 2100 player and a SuperGM, especially in 3 aspects of the game: tactics, time management and endgame.
I hope you have this game interesting; it's the first time I analyze a game on my own without engine and I have to say that I have found out that it's very entertaining!
See you in the next article about Chess Olympiad.
Bye, take care and remember... to play chess!
Full game here: