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Lev Aronian Wins Tata Steel 2012

Lev Aronian Wins Tata Steel 2012

SonofPearl
| 23 | Chess Event Coverage

Official Website Final Report

An anti-climactic repetition of moves in what was hoped would be the crowning duel of the final round in one of the most combative chess events in recent years, earned Armenia’s Levon Aronian an unshared 10,000-euro first prize in the 74th annual Tata Steel Tournament at the wintry resort town of Wijk-aan-Zee Sunday.

Playing white against Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan – one of his main rivals in the field of fourteen - Aronian came up with an innocuous line of the Gruenfeld, followed theory for ten moves and then initiated the repetition that ended the game two moves later.

He wrote down the intended (but not executed) 13.Ne5 on his score-sheet, looked up at Radjabov and nodded, after which the two GMs shook hands. Speaking to reporters after their short sojourn in the tournament arena, both players stressed that there had been no deals of any kind beforehand.

Tata 2012 Round 13 Lev Aronian - Teimour Radjabov.jpg

 

“No, no,” said Aronian, “I really came to play today. I was prepared for a fight but when Teimour allowed the repetition of moves, I was glad to take the draw, of course.” His lack of pugnacity “actually came as a pleasant surprise for me.”

And Radjabov explained: “I was surprised by Aronian’s choice for an opening. I had expected him to go for a win in an effort to reach first place on FIDE’s world rating list, and prepared for a completely different line. I ended up slightly worse with black and a draw was fine with me. I was happy to be the only player to remain unbeaten.”

 

 

 

At a press conference later in the day, Aronian said the tournament victory was his “best result so far. Sure, I’ve had some other good tournaments, but winning in Wijk-aan-Zee is very special, because, after all, this tournament is for chess what Wimbledon is for tennis. This year’s edition was very interesting, with several young players who had something to prove. Many games were fighting games, and, of course, there are bound to be mistakes in such games.”

 

 

Earlier, Aronian put in an appearance at the commentary pavilion on the town commons, where he told the audience that he was quite happy with his tournament record of seven wins, four draws and two losses. When asked whether he ought not to have tried and gone for a win in his final-round game in an effort to come alongside Magnus Carlsen on top of the world ranking list, Aronian replied: “I want to win tournaments and become World Champion, but a first place on any rating list, FIDE’s or any other, doesn’t interest me at all.”

Radjabov’s final score of 8 points - for his unbeaten tournament record of three wins and ten draws - kept him one point below Aronian’s 9 and was not enough for an unshared second place in the final Group-A standings. The Azeri GM could lay claim to only one-third of the combined 13,000 euros for the second, third and fourth prizes. The remaining two thirds went to Norway’s Carlsen and Italy’s Fabiano Caruana.

Carlsen, black in a Stonewall against Holland’s Loek van Wely, gave it a valiant try for 41 moves, but got no further than a small advantage and in the end proposed to sign the peace himself. With Aronian and Radjabov agreeing on a draw so soon, Carlsen said he “had pretty much given up hope to play for first place anyway. Although … well … they can do what they want, of course … and if they want to make a draw, well I guess that’s okay … although I was a little bit surprised that Radjabov didn’t even try. I suppose he was happy with the outcome.”

Tata 2012 Round 13 Magnus Carlsen.jpg

 

Asked about his performance, Carlsen said: “I played really well in the first three rounds and all went okay until the seventh round. After that, it was a total mess. In the end, I was even lucky to finish at plus 3.” He added that he hoped to be invited for next year’s jubilee tournament. “We’ll have to see, of course … but I’ve been here nine times in a row, so it would be a shame to miss out next year,” Carlsen said.

 

 

 

Caruana earned a 500-euro bonus on top of his share of the prize fund, as GM Ivan Sokolov picked his victory in 48 moves with white from a Petroff Defense against Israel’s Boris Gelfand for this year’s final ‘Piet Zwart Prize’. “Nice,” Caruana said. “I mean, it’s always nice to win, but this one was really very welcome. It was probably a draw for quite some time but somewhere Boris went wrong and I profited.”

Tata 2012 Round 13 Fabiano Caruana.jpg

 

 

 

In the longest Group-A game of the day, U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky ground down Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov in 71 moves from a Queen’s Pawn opening, in which the black-player, clearly not on form throughout the tournament, seriously mishandled the middle game.

Tata 2012 Round 13 Gata Kamsky.jpg

 

 

 

The three other encounters –Gashimov-Nakamura, Ivanchuk-Karjakin and Giri-Navara were all relatively quickly drawn.

Tata 2012 Round 13 Vugar Gashimov - Hikaru Nakamura.jpg

 

 

 

 

Tata 2012 Round 13 Anish Giri - David Navara.jpg

 

 

 

 

Tata 2012 Round 13 Vassily Ivanchuk - Sergey Karjakin.jpg

 

 

The final standings in Group A:

Aronian, Levon  ARM  2805 * 0 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 0 1 9
Carlsen, Magnus  NOR  2835 1 * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 ½ ½ 8
Radjabov, Teimour  AZE  2773 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 8
Caruana, Fabiano  ITA  2736 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 8
Ivanchuk, Vassily  UKR  2766 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1
Nakamura, Hikaru  USA  2759 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 1 ½  ½ 1 ½
Kamsky, Gata  USA  2732 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 0 7
Karjakin, Sergey  RUS  2769 0 1 0 0 ½ ½ 0 * 1 0 1 ½ 1 1
Van Wely, Loek  NED  2692 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½
Gelfand, Boris  ISR  2739 0 0 ½ 0 1 0 ½ 1 ½ * ½ ½ ½ 0 5
Topalov, Veselin  BUL  2770 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ * ½ ½ 1 5
Gashimov, Vugar  AZE  2761 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ 1 5
Navara, David  CZE  2712 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½
Giri, Anish  NED  2714 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 1 0 ½ 1 0 0 ½ *

 

In Group B, the ‘Piet-Zwart Prize’ – funded by the municipalities of Velsen and Beverwijk – went to Cuba’s Lazaro Bruzon for his win in 24 moves with black from a Reti opening against Holland’s Sipke Ernst. The 3,000-euro first prize in this group went to India’s Pentala Harikrishna, who added a draw against Holland’s Dimitri Reinderman to a tournament record of six wins, six draws and one loss.

Tata 2012 Round 13 Lazaro Bruzon.jpg

 

 

Tata 2012 Round 13 Harikrishna.jpg

 

 

 

The results of the last round in Group B:

Harikrishna, Pentala    ½-½  Reinderman, Dimitri    
Ernst, Sipke    0-1  Bruzon Batista, Lazaro 
Vocaturo, Daniele  ½-½  Lahno, Kateryna    
Nyzhnyk, Illya   1-0  Harika, Dronavalli    
Tiviakov, Sergei   1-0  Cmilyte, Viktorija   
Potkin, Vladimir   1-0
 L'Ami, Erwin    
Timman, Jan H   ½-½  Motylev, Alexander    

 

The final standings in Group B:

Harikrishna, Pentala  IND  2665 ½  1 ½  ½  ½  1 ½  1 0 1 1 ½  1 9
Motylev, Alexander  RUS  2677 ½  ½  ½  1 ½  ½  ½  ½  1 1 1 ½  ½   
Bruzon Batista, Lazaro  CUB  2691 0 ½  ½  ½  ½  0 1 1 1 ½  1 1 1  
L'Ami, Erwin  NED  2596 ½  ½  ½  1 ½  ½  0 ½  0 1 1 1 1 8
Tiviakov, Sergei  NED  2677 ½  0 ½  0 1 ½  1 1 0 1 ½  1 1 8
Reinderman, Dimitri  NED  2581 ½  ½  ½  ½  0 1 0 1 1 ½  1 ½  ½  7½ 
Nyzhnyk, Illya  UKR  2568 0 ½  1 ½  ½  0 ½  0 ½  1 1 1 1  
Potkin, Vladimir  RUS  2684 ½  ½  0 1 0 1 ½  ½  0 ½  ½  ½  1  
Timman, Jan H  NED  2571 0 ½  0 ½  0 0 1 ½  1 ½  ½  1 ½  6
Ernst, Sipke  NED  2606 1 0 0 1 1 0 ½  1 0 0 0 0 ½  5
Lahno, Kateryna  UKR  2557 0 0 ½  0 0 ½  0 ½  ½  1 ½  ½  ½   
Vocaturo, Daniele  ITA  2545 0 0 0 0 ½  0 0 ½  ½  1 ½  1 ½  4½ 
Cmilyte, Viktorija  LTU  2503 ½  ½  0 0 0 ½  0 ½  0 1 ½  0 ½  4
Harika, Dronavalli  IND  2516 0 ½  0 0 0 ½  0 0 ½  ½  ½  ½  ½   

 

Russia’s Maxim Turov defeated Holland’s Etienne Goudriaan in final-round action Sunday to finish an unshared first in Group C. Sweden’s Hans Tikkanen, level with Turov at the outset of the round, was held to a draw by India’s Tania Sachdev and had to settle for second place.

Tata 2012 Round 13 Turov.jpg

 

 

Tata 2012 Round 13 Tikkanen.jpg

 

 

The 100 euros set aside for the day-prize in this section o the tournament was shared by Britain’s Matthew Sadler and India’s Sahaj Grover for their highly entertaining draw in 82 moves from an unusual Queen’s Pawn Opening.

Tata 2012 Round 13 Grover - Sadler.jpg

 

 

The results of the last round in Group C:

Grover, Sahaj    ½-½  Sadler, Matthew D    
Tikkanen, Hans    ½-½  Tania, Sachdev    
Ootes, Lars   0-1  Paehtz, Elisabeth    
Haast, Anne   0-1  Brandenburg, Daan    
Schut, Lisa   0-1  Adhiban, Baskaran   
Turov, Maxim   1-0  Goudriaan, Etienne   
Danielian, Elina   1-0  Hopman, Pieter    

 

The final standings in Group C:

Turov, Maxim  RUS  2645 ½  ½  1 ½  ½  ½  1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10½
Tikkanen, Hans  SWE  2549 ½  ½  ½  1 1 1 ½  1 1 1 0 1 1 10
Brandenburg, Daan  NED  2527 ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  1 ½  ½  1 1 1
Adhiban, Baskaran  IND  2561 0 ½  ½  1 ½  1 ½  ½  ½  ½  1 1 1
Grover, Sahaj  IND  2532 ½  0 ½  0 ½  1 ½  ½  1 1 ½  1 0 7
Sadler, Matthew D  ENG  2660 ½  0 ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  1 ½  1 7
Paehtz, Elisabeth  GER  2454 ½  0 ½  0 0 ½  1 ½  1 1 ½  1 ½  7
Tania, Sachdev  IND  2411 0 ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  0 ½  ½  0 ½  1 1 6
Danielian, Elina  ARM  2490 0 0 0 ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  1 0 1 ½  ½ 
Goudriaan, Etienne  NED  2279 0 0 ½  ½  0 ½  0 ½  0 1 ½  1 ½  5
Ootes, Lars  NED  2326 0 0 ½  ½  0 ½  0 1 1 0 1 0 0
Hopman, Pieter  NED  2342 0 1 0 0 ½  0 ½  ½  0 ½  0 0 1 4
Schut, Lisa  NED  2290 0 0 0 0 0 ½  0 0 ½  0 1 1 1 4
Haast, Anne  NED  2290 0 0 0 0 1 0 ½  0 ½  ½  1 0 0

 

Report and photos from the official website coverage. Videos by Freshmen media.

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