Levon Aronian vs Viswanathan Anand - World Championship Tournament 2007.09.14

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Levon Aronian vs Viswanathan Anand
World Championship Tournament Mexico City MEX round 2 2007.09.14
Semi-Slav Defense Accepted 0-1

[Event "World Championship Tournament"]
[Site "Mexico City MEX"]
[Date "2007.09.14"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "2"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Levon Aronian"]
[Black "Viswanathan Anand"]
[ECO "D44"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "82"]

1.d4 {Notes by Raymond Keene. --- The first positive result of
the event. Aronian thought that his d5 was not good, and that
he had missed ...Qe6. He said that Anand had played well and
he had not, his attacking idea being too speculative. In reply
to a question about his state of mind after achieving the
first win of the tournament, Anand replied that one should
play on a day-to-day basis, and not get ahead of oneself. 40%
of people think that games should end in a draw, but sometimes
they are not correct.} Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c6 5.Bg5 h6
{At this point 5 ... dxc4 6 e4 b5 7 e5 h6 8 Bh4 g5 9 Nxg5 hxg5
10 Bxg5 Nbd7 is the famous Botvinnik variation.} 6.Bh4
{Offering a different type of gambit and admitting that 6 Bxf6
Qxf6 is probably harmless for Black.} dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5
9.Ne5 h5 10.h4 g4 {Although Black's position is weakened on
both wings he does enjoy an extra pawn. Furthermore a pattern
is beginning to emerge in that Black's pawns on g4 and c4 are
threatening to restrict the movement of White's f1-bishop.}
11.Be2 Bb7 12.O-O Nbd7 13.Qc2 Nxe5 14.Bxe5 Bg7 15.Rad1 O-O
16.Bg3 Nd7 17.f3 c5 18.dxc5 Qe7 19.Kh1 {This move seems
insufficiently active. The critical line must be 19 Bd6 Qxh4
(threatening ... g3) 20 fxg4 Bh6 21 Rf3 with complications.}
a6 20.a4 Bc6 21.Nd5 {White's next move tries to storm the
black camp with his bare hands. It is surprising that Aronian
did not instead seek to counter Black's strategy of containing
the white king's bishop. White could have achieved this by
playing 21 fxg4 which also has the virtue of pocketing a
pawn. After this the position remains devilishly
complicated. } exd5 22.exd5 Be5 23.f4 Bg7 24.dxc6 Nxc5 25.Rd5
Ne4 26.Be1 Qe6 {! This was the move White had overlooked. His
rook is now driven out of play, Black's knight dominates the
centre and by permitting Black with his next move to
consolidate the pawn on g4, White is suddenly faced with a
situation where his light squared bishop is virtually
useless. } 27.Rxh5 f5 28.Kh2 Rac8 29.Bb4 Rfe8 30.axb5 axb5
31.Re1 Qf7 32.Rg5 {An admission of the bankruptcy of his
entire strategy beginning with 21 Nd5.} Nxg5 33.fxg5 Rxc6
34.Bf1 Rxe1 35.Bxe1 Re6 36.Bc3 Qc7+ 37.g3 Re3 38.Qg2 Bxc3
39.bxc3 f4 40.Qa8+ Kg7 41.Qa6 fxg3+ 0-1

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Updated: 18 October, 2021
Created: 18 October, 2021