Levon Aronyan leads the Tata Steel's A group with 7.5 points after 10 rounds. The Armenian GM has a 2944 tournament performance rating. He is followed by Vasily Ivanchuk (6.5), who has moved up in unobtrusive fashion. World no:1 Magnus Carlsen shares third- fourth with Teimour Radjabov (both 6). Carlsen has been pegged back by a loss versus Karjakin.
Aronyan has been playing truly great chess. He is very creative, effortlessly pulling off complex combinations and calculating perfectly, after the hiccup of a loss to Carlsen. Clearly he is the favourite and he could jump to no:1 Right now, Aronyan is running 2827 in the live ratings while Carlsen is 2834 (-1). However, with three rounds to go, any of the top four could take gold, given a big finish.
Gold in B and C are still open. In Group B, Harikrishna leads with 8 points (+6=4) and a 2800+ performance. L'Ami and Motylev share second with 7. Harikrishna must be hoping to break into the big league since gold also means promotion to Group A in 2013. In Group C, Maxim Turov leads with 8, ahead of Tikkanen (7.5) and Adhiban (7). Sahaj Grover shares fourth-sixth with 6 points.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, the Parsvnath Open concluded with Filipino GM Oliver Barbosa scoring 9.5 from the 11 round Swiss to take clear first. Second-Third was shared between John Paul Gomez and Lalith Babu (both 9), with Gomez ahead on tiebreak.
The Diagram (Giri Vs Aronyan, Tata Steel 2012), BLACK TO PLAY, is a good illustration of Aronyan at his best. He made a classic positional sacrifice, and followed through with a great attack.
Play went 13.-- Rxf3! 14.gxf3 Bd6 15.Qe4 Bc6 16.Qg4 Qe7 17.Bxd6 cxd6 18.Ne4 h6. The contours are clear - black has Rf8, N-h4, etc. White's rooks are useless defenders. Black doesn't have to hurry, since white has no activity.
19.Qg3 d5 20.Nc3 Rf8 21.Ne2 Rf5 22.Kg2 Nd7 23.Rh1 Nf8! 24.h4? Ng6 A rule of thumb goes, avoid pawns moves on a weak flank. It holds here as Giri makes things worse.
25.f4 Nxh4+ 26.Kf1 Qb4 27.Rb1 Be8! 28.Nc3 Qe7 29.b4 Rf8 30.Rb2 Bg6 31.Ke1 Bd3 32.fxg5 Nf3+ 33.Kd1 hxg5 34.Qh3 Qf6. Black has full material compensation and a winning attack. The h-file counterplay isn't serious.
Now black prepares e5 blasting the centre open 35.Kc1 Bg6 36.a4 Rd8 37.Ne2 e5 38.Qg4 exd4 39.exd4 Re8 40.Qd7 c3 41.Ra2 Ne1!! This is fabulous but normal moves like 41.--Nd2 43. Nxc3 Nxd4 also win. The end came with 42.Rxe1 Qf4+!! 43.Kd1 Qe4 (0-1). An unusual mating complex results from 43. Nxf4 Rxe1# and the text forces 44. Qxe8+ Bxe8 45. Nxc3 Qd3+ 46. Rd2 Bh5+, etc.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
