Aronian secures at least shared first in Wijk aan Zee

Levon Aronian beat Boris Gelfand on Saturday in Wijk aan Zee and is again leading the Tata Steel tournament by a full point, with one round to go.  Both Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov, who were trailing by half a point, drew their games. In the B group Harikrishna kept his half-point lead, while Maxim Turov and Hans Tikkanen still share the lead in 'C'.

After round 11, one of the most exciting rounds in Wijk aan Zee in many years, the 12th round was more quiet, almost disappointing. Levon Aronian bounced back from his loss against David Navara the previous day and won against Boris Gelfand. This meant that his closest rivals, Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov, had to win as well, but they both didn't manage. This mean that Aronian increased his lead to a full point again, and the tournament was suddenly already decided. The Armenian wouldn't lose his last-round game, with the white pieces, against Teimour Radjabov, now would he?

The Gelfand-Aronian started as a sideline of the Queen's Gambit Declined, where Black went ...Nf6-e8 and ...f7-f5 at an early stage to bring a Stonewall pawn structure on the board. At some point Black won a pawn, but White had strong pressure as compensation. The game was more or less balanced until after the first time control, when suddenly things got tricky.

[Event "74th Tata Steel GMA"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2012.01.28"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Gelfand, Boris"]
[Black "Aronian, Levon"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D31"]
[WhiteElo "2739"]
[BlackElo "2805"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "5rk1/R2b1r2/2p2P1q/1pQp2p1/1P2p2p/4P2P/4N1P1/5RK1 b - - 0 43"]
[PlyCount "21"]
[EventDate "2012.01.14"]

43... g4 $1 44. hxg4 $6 ({Better was} 44. Rf4 gxh3 45. gxh3 Bxh3 46. Kh2 Bd7 {
and now} 47. Rxd7 $1 Rxd7 48. Qxc6) 44... h3 $6 (44... Bxg4) 45. Nf4 hxg2 46.
Kxg2 $2 (46. Nxg2 {should end in a draw.}) 46... Qxf6 {
Now Black has a winning attack.} 47. Kg3 Rh7 48. g5 Qxg5+ 49. Kf2 Rxf4+ 50.
exf4 Rh2+ 51. Ke3 Qg3+ 52. Kd4 Qg7+ 53. Ke3 Rh3+ 0-1

Don't miss Levon Aronian's press conference, where at the end he answers our question what aspects of the game he managed to improve in recent months.

Long before the end of Gelfand-Aronian, Teimour Radjabov had already drawn with Vassily Ivanchuk. The Ukrainian, known for his wide opening repertoire, solved his opening problems quite easily in a Volga/Benkö Gambit. Against Gata Kamsky, Magnus Carlsen again wasn't showing his best chess.

[Event "74th Tata Steel GMA"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2012.01.28"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Black "Kamsky, Gata"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C89"]
[WhiteElo "2835"]
[BlackElo "2732"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "r4rk1/2p1q1pp/p1b5/1p1n1p2/3P4/1BP1pP2/PP1N2PP/R2QR1K1 w - - 0 16"]
[PlyCount "23"]
[EventDate "2012.01.14"]

16. c4 $6 ({Everyone expected} 16. f4 {
when White has some chances for an advantage.}) 16... Nf4 $1 17. cxb5+ Kh8 18.
Nc4 (18. bxc6 Qg5 19. g3 ({not} 19. Re2 Nxe2+ 20. Qxe2 exd2 21. Rd1 Qf6) 19...
exd2 {was perhaps less bad than it looked because of} 20. Re5 $1) 18... e2 19.
Qd2 Qg5 20. Rxe2 $1 (20. g3 $6 Nh3+ 21. Kg2 Bxf3+ 22. Kxf3 Qg4+ 23. Kg2 f4 24.
Ne5 f3+ 25. Kh1 Qe4 26. Bc2 Qd5 27. Bb3 Qb7 28. d5 Nf2+ 29. Kg1 Qb6) 20...
Nxe2+ 21. Qxe2 Bxb5 22. Qe3 $1 f4 23. Qe5 Qh4 24. Qe1 Qxe1+ 25. Rxe1 Bxc4 26.
Bxc4 c6 27. Re6 {Strong defence by Carlsen, who managed to draw this endgame.}
1/2-1/2

Veselin Topalov won his first game of the tournament against a struggling Anish Giri. The Bulgarian kept the advantage right from the opening - the Petroff, which had yielded Giri two victories in his previous tournament.

[Event "74th Tata Steel GMA"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2012.01.28"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Topalov, Veselin"]
[Black "Giri, Anish"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42"]
[WhiteElo "2770"]
[BlackElo "2714"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "3r2k1/3q2p1/p2p3R/2p5/P4r2/1P6/2PQ3P/1K2R3 b - - 0 43"]
[PlyCount "8"]
[EventDate "2012.01.14"]

43... Rf7 ({Black's last chance was} 43... Rf5) 44. Rg1 c4 45. Qg5 Rdf8 46. Qh5
Rf1+ 47. Kb2 1-0

In the B group, tournament leader Pentala Harikrishna managed to hold the important game with black against Alexander Motylev to a draw. This meant that Erwin l'Ami could have reached shared first with the Indian, if he beat Jan Timman. Instead, the oldest of the two Dutch grandmasters outplayed his younger opponent with Black, only to finish the game with another horrible blunder.

[Event "74th Tata Steel GMB"]
[Site "Wijk aan Zee NED"]
[Date "2012.01.28"]
[Round "12"]
[White "L'Ami, Erwin"]
[Black "Timman, Jan H"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E15"]
[WhiteElo "2596"]
[BlackElo "2571"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2r3k1/R5pp/5q2/3b1p2/4pP2/1P2n1PB/5N1P/Q5K1 b - - 0 37"]
[PlyCount "3"]
[EventDate "2012.01.14"]

37... Bxb3 $4 ({Several moves, like} 37... Qc3) ({or even} 37... h6 {
were close to winning for Black.}) 38. Nxe4 $1 Qxa1+ 1/2-1/2

In the C group things will be decided on the final day, because both leaders, Maxim Turov and Hans Tikkanen, won their games. The latter won against pre-tournament favorite Matthew Sadler.

Games group A, round 12

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group A | Round 12 standings

Games group B, round 12

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group B | Round 12 standings

Games group C, round 12

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Pairings

Tata Steel 2012 | Grandmaster Group C | Round 12 standings