Levon Aronian's 3 Gems
Aronian's Chess Symphony: 3 Games that Resonate Artistry and Skill
Hey there, Allen here! How’s it going? Today, 6th October, is Levon Aronian’s birthday and we are gonna look at 3 of his best and dazzling games (IMO). If you are new to this chess magazine, welcome! Consider subscribing to my chess magazine and share this post to your friends and spread the message to the world! Hope you enjoy the article. Let’s get into the article!
I’m gonna give you the most interesting position in each of the games and you are requested to solve those on your own. Once you are done with it, you can scroll down, have a look at his games, verify your answer and enjoy the beauty in the game. This article will indirectly expose you to some different ideas and concepts which you might not have come across earlier. So once you are done solving, go through the “concepts involved” in the games thoroughly, analyze them and reap the benefits out of it.
Game-1
This is gonna be on the easy side. Still requires a little bit of effort. Levon was playing black in this game. Black to play and win.
Could you solve it? I hope you did. Now, this game was very interesting and more on my style. It was a nice attacking game, involved a lot of concepts. The game was decided solely on the g-file. Now the concepts involved in this game were,
Rooks and Queen battery (On g-file)
Bishop and rook battery (In the final position)
Flank pawn attack (h5 pawn move)
Overloading (Rook and queen battery+f4 move)
Exploiting the weak open file (g-file)
Each of the above mentioned topic will be discussed in detail in the latter articles. Have a look at the game, I’ve attached the notations at the bottom of the game.
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Bc4 e6 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.O-O a6 7.d3 b5 8.Bb3 Nxb3 9.axb3 Bb7 10.e5 b4 11.exf6 bxc3 12.fxg7 Bxg7 13.bxc3 Bxc3 14.Ra4 Rg8 15.Bf4 Qf6 16.Bg3 Bxf3 17.gxf3 h5 18.Kh1 Bd4 19.h4 Ke7 20.Qe2 Rg6 21.Rg1 Rag8 22.Rxa6 Kf8 23.Ra4 Kg7 24.b4 cxb4 25.Rxb4 Kh7 26.Rg2 Qg7 27.Rb5 f5 28.Rg1 e5 29.f4 Rg4 30.fxe5 f4 31.e6 Rxh4+ 32.Kg2 Qxg3+ 0-1
Game-2
Here, Levon was playing white. His opponent was none other than Navara David. The game was decided on one critical position. This is a lot harder compared to the first one. White to play and get a big advantage.
Could you solve it? Was it hard? It is. Incase you want a clue, black has an unguarded bishop on b7 which can be captured by the bishop on g2 if the pawn on d5 moves out of the diagonal and attacks a piece with higher worth. Now let’s look at the concepts involved:
Weak fianchettoed bishop (b7)
Forks (Nf7)
Zwischenzug (Nf7)
Interference (e4)
Occupying the open-file (Rooks on e-flie)
Targeting weak pawns (e-pawn)
Flank pawn attack (h4-h5 breaking g6-h7 pawn chain)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.Nc3 Ne4 7.Bd2 f5 8.Qc2 Bf6 9.Ne5 d5 10.cxd5 Nxc3 11.Nf7 Qd7 12.Bxc3 Bxd5 13.Bxd5 Qxd5 14.e4 fxe4 15.Nxh8 Nc6 16.O-O Ke7 17.Rae1 Rxh8 18.Rxe4 Rd8 19.Rfe1 Rd6 20.Rf4 g6 21.h4 Rd7 22.h5 Bxd4 23.hxg6 hxg6 24.Qxg6 Ne5 25.Qf6+ 1-0
Game-3
Guys, I’ve saved the best for the last. You’re gonna love it. Absolutely incredible!!! Such a terrific game, truly a game to remember. Here, Levon was black and he was playing against none other than Sokolov. I’m gonna give you three positions from this game.
What move did Levon play here to make the complicated as hell and possibly broke sokolov.
Here, Levon unleashed a killer move, can you find it?
What move did Levon play to convince Sokolov to resign?
How was it? Could you solve it? I guess the following positions would have given away some hints. Nevertheless, I still think it was so hard. The game was decided on two things— Weak a1-h8 diagonal and weak back rank. The concepts involved were:
Zwischenzug (Of6 and Bf5)
Weak diagonals (a1-h8 and e1-a5)
Overloading (Queen had to defend the c5-pawn, rook and the back rank)
Weak back rank (King was caged in by the knight)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 c5 7.dxc5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Ne4 10.Bxb8 Qf6 11.Bg3 Nxc3 12.a3 Bf5 13.Qd2 Ba5 14.b4 Ne4 15.Qc1 Rc8 16.Ra2 Rxc5 17.Qa1 Qc6 18.Qe5+ Kd8 19.Qxh8+ Kd7 0-1
Before I let you go, I would like to give you one more puzzle, this was a game between Alexei Shirov and Levon. It is one of the rarest endgames that you will ever encounter. But please do try solving it. Really worth it!!
Levon was black in this game. What stunning move did Levon play here?
I’m not gonna give you the answer, I want you to analyze this position with your engine and find the answer yourself.
I hope you enjoyed this article. Feel free to like this post and consider subscribing to my chess magazine. I need your suggestions for my next article. Also follow me on twitter “@korg16449” to get updated with the latest chess news. I will see you in my next article.
Signing off— Allen