 "Chess")
The World Cup finals will see Levon Aronian taking on Ding Liren. Fans of the Armenian GM will be happy he's into the Candidates. The Chinese are over the moon at the thought that their “boy” has made that elite group.
The 24-year-old Ding has long been accounted one of the most talented players of his generation. He’s worked as a second for Magnus Carlsen and was briefly the No. 1 rated blitz player. Ding survived one hair-raising experience when he was lost against Vidit Gujrathi, but he put it across Wesley So in impressive style in the semis.
Both missed marginal chances in the classicals. Nerves clearly showed when Ding allowed So to escape from a dead-lost position in Game 3. The Chinese GM offered a draw on move 9 with white (!) in Game 4 to recover composure. So took the draw. Ding won with sharp tactics in Game 5 and held on in Game 6. So is well-placed to make the Candidates anyhow, given the slot for a player with the highest average rating through 2017.
Aronian versus Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was another superb contest. Both were desperate to make the finals because neither was guaranteed a slot at the Candidates. They drew the classicals without much action and traded wins in the first set at 25 minutes (+10 seconds increment). Aronian lost the first game but pulled out a crazy sacrifice break-back.
Then Aronian missed a huge chance in the blitz (5 min +3 sec increment) and qualified by winning the first Armageddon. Aronian had 5 minutes (no increments) and white. MVL had 4 min and black. Black gets draw odds, going through if there's no result. For a long time, MVL was braced to hold but Aronian broke through and finished off with Queen Vs Rook. Oddly enough that was the same configuration when Ding won against So.
It's hard to call the finals. Aronian is a creative genius and a monster at short controls. Ding is a truly fantastic short-control player and also a creative, unusual thinker. If it comes down to nerves, I'd back the Chinaman because Aronian doesn't necessarily relish tight situations though that sounds ironic given that he's just won an Armageddon.
The Diagram, White to Play, (White: Aronian Vs Black Vachier-Lagrave, World Cup Tie break Game 4 , Tbilisi, 2017) featured an amazing shot. Normal would be Nge2, etc.
White played 15.Bc4 !? hxg3 16.hxg3 Rh8 17.e5! Qe7 Black goes wrong defending a scary looking position. Play continued 18.0–0–0 Nd7 19.exd6 Qxd6 20.Ne4 Qe5 21.d6 g5 22.Rhe1 b5 23.Bd5 Rb8 24.f4 Qd4 ? Now 24. — Qf5 25. Qc3+ Ndf6 26. Nxc5 is excellent for white but this loses outright White finished with 25.Qe2 Qb4 26.Qh5 (1-0) If 26.—Rf8 27. Rh1.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
