Sochi R12: Svidler wins, Aronian retains lead
In a textbook example of endgame play, Svidler won a very nice knight versus bishop ending against Jakovenko. Six other draws in the 12th round meant that Levon Aronian is still in sole lead at the 2nd Grand Prix in Sochi, with one round to go.Perhaps that's the secret to the succes of these 2700 players: being ever-critical to oneself. After he had just won his ending against Jakovenko, Peter Svidler wasn't too positive about his play, and mentioned several moments where he suffered from chess blindness. But it doesn't really affect the beauty of the game, does it? Scroll down, enjoy and learn from this great endgame.
Before this, the journalists and spectators (the last two days about 20 now) had been watching two other endgames and asked themselves the same question: will he be able to win it? The "he" refers to Navara, who was a pawn up in a rook ending with Black against Wang Yue, and Cheparinov, who was a pawn up in a double rook ending against Al-Modiahki. But in both games, the defenders managed to save themselves.Hours before that, the other four games had already ended in draws. Ivanchuk has is own reasons for finishing his games quickly these days, and it might be an answer to his uninspiring tournament. It is said that he's deeply excited by the TV series Woman Without A Past, which begins at 18:05 local time. And indeed chief arbiter Gijssen is considering to give the great Vassily an official warning, since he didn't sign his opponent's (Radjabov's) score sheet in the previous round but rushed away instead!
Vassily Ivanchuk: "What time is it..."
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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