In a very exciting final Levon Aronian from Armenia last night became the rapid world champion Chess960. He defeated Viswanathan Anand 3,5-2,5. The four rapid games, with 20 minutes on the clock and 5 seconds increment a move, were ended in 2-2 after Anand had equaled the score in the fourth game. Then two blitz games followed (5 minutes plus 5 seconds increment) which were won by Aronian 1,5-0,5. Aronian received the throphy and complimented his opponent: "Also in Chess960 Vishy is a very srtrong rapid player."It's about time that we do a video. Since it's tradition in Mainz to get the players to their boards every round by playing different ABBA songs, ChessVibes will do it in style. The final Aronian-Anand in a little movie:
De partijen dan. Finale, partij 1:
Partij 2:
Partij 3:
Partij 4:
During the blitz tiebreak of Aronian-Anand a small organizer's nightmare happened: the DGT boards didn't submit the games to the viewer anymore. For a while it seemd that the audience had to watch four players on a stage moving some wood, but luckily there was hanging a camera right above the boards as well and so the big screen switched to these images. Because of these technical problems the blitz games aren't available in the Toma viewer and so I'll give them like this:
Aronian-Anand
Mainz, FiNet Chess960 Rapid World Championship (01) 2007
1. e4 g6 2. d4 d6 3. g3 f5 4. exf5 gxf5 5. Nf3 Nf6 6. Qe2 Ng6 7. N1d2 e5 8. dxe5 dxe5 9. Rd1 Qe7 10. Nc4 Re8 11. Bg2 a5 12. a4 Ra6 13. Nfd2 e4 14. Nb3 f4 15. Ncxa5
15...f3? 16. Qxa6! fxg2 17. Qb5 Qe6 18. Rg1 e3?! 19. Bxe3 Qd5 20. Qxd5 Nxd5 21. Rxg2 Bf5 22. O-O-O Nb4 23. Rd2 Ne5 24. Nd4 Be4 25. Rg1 b6 26. Nab3 c5 27. Bf4 cxd4 28. Rxd4 1-0
Anand-Aronian
Mainz, FiNet Chess960 Rapid World Championship (02) 2007
1. Ng3 Ng6 2. e3 c5 3. O-O b6 4. b3 O-O 5. f4 e6 6. Nh5 f6 7. Qg4 Rf7 8. c4 f5 9. Qh3 Qh4 10. Qxh4 Nxh4 11. Re2 Ne7 12. d4 d6 13. dxc5 dxc5 14. Nd3 Nhg6 15. Nf2 Nf8 16.Rd1 Nc6 17. e4 Ree7 18. e5 Rd7 19. Red2 Rxd2 20. Rxd2 Rd7 21. Bc3 Rxd2 22. Bxd2 Nd7 23. h4 Bc7 24. Ng3 Bd8 25. h5 g6 26. hxg6 hxg6 27. Ne2 g5 28. g3 Kf7 29. Kf1 Ne7 30. Nh3 Ng6 31. Nxg5+ Bxg5 32. fxg5 Ndxe5 33. Nc3 Bc6 34. a4 Nf3 35. Be3 Nge5 36. Bf4 Kg6 37. Ba2 Nd7 38. a5 e5 39. Be3 bxa5 40. Bb1 Nxg5 41. g4 e4 42. gxf5+ Kxf5 43. Bxg5
White can win pawn e4 but not the game anymore, so Vishy decided to throw in the towel and offered a draw, which was immediately accepted by Aronian. 1/2-1/2