Aronian wins World Blitz Championship

by ChessBase
11/18/2010 – With two rounds to go Lev Aronian had a point-and-a-half lead over his nearest rival, Teimour Radjabov, with last year's winner Magnus Carlsen half a point behind. Aronian lost both the final games, Radjabov lost one too and Carlsen drew both of his. So the Armenian-in-Superform finished alone in first place, with the Azeri and Norwegian in the places. Full illustrated report.

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The World Blitz Championship is being held from 16 to 18 November at the GUM Department Store on Red Square in Moscow. It is a double round robin with twenty players, eight of whom are participants of the Tal Memorial, with others who qualified from the 2010 Aeroflot tournament and seeded players. Starting time is 15:00h local (= 13:00h CET; 07:00 a.m. NY), the rate of play three minutes for all the moves plus a two second increment per move. There is live game coverage and video on the official site.

Third day: Aronian wins with half a point lead

Teimour Radjabov was the biggest danger to the leading Levon Aronian in the final rounds. After 36 games the Armenian was 1.5 points ahead of his Azeri rival, and two ahead of last year's winner Magnus Carlsen. In round 37, the penultimate, Radjabov lost with black to Sergey Movsesian, while Carlsen drew against Ian Nepomniachtchi. Aronian's loss (with the white pieces) to Sergey Karjakin did not change the fact that he was now unassailable, a point and a half ahead of the other two.

The only question was: who would finish second. Magnus drew against Alexander Grischuk, while Radjabov beat Boris Gelfand to take second place behind Levon Aronian, who was the sole winner despite a terrible loss to Peter Svidler in the final round.

Progression table for the last five rounds

#
Name
R34
R35
R36
R37
R38
1 Aronian, Levon 23.5 23.5 24.5 24.5 24.5
2 Radjabov, Teimour 21.0 22.0 23.0 23.0 24.0
3 Carlsen, Magnus 20.5 21.5 22.5 23.0 23.5
4 Gelfand, Boris 20.5 21.0 21.0 21.5 21.5
5 Nakamura, Hikaru 18.0 19.0 20.0 21.0 21.5
6 Karjakin, Sergey 17.5 18.5 19.5 20.5 20.5
7 Kramnik, Vladimir 18.5 19.5 20.5 20.5 20.5
8 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 16.5 17.5 17.5 18.5 19.5
9 Svidler, Peter 16.0 17.0 18.0 18.5 19.5
10 Eljanov, Pavel 17.0 17.0 17.0 18.0 19.0
11 Grischuk, Alexander 17.5 17.5 18.5 18.5 19.0
12 Mamedov, Rauf 15.5 15.5 16.0 17.0 18.0
13 Nepomniachtchi, Ian 17.0 17.0 17.0 17.5 18.0
14 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 16.5 17.5 18.0 18.0 18.0
19 Caruana, Fabiano 13.0 13.5 13.5 13.5 13.5
20 Ponomariov, Ruslan 12.5 12.5 12.5 12.5 12.5
15 Movsesian, Sergei 16.5 16.5 16.5 17.5 17.5
17 Grachev, Boris 14.5 14.5 14.5 15.5 16.5
16 Andreikin, Dmitry 14.5 15.5 15.5 16.5 17.5
18 Savchenko, Boris 13.5 13.5 14.5 14.5 15.5

Final standings (after 38 rounds)

#
Name
Fed.
rtng
pts.
wins
S.B.
1 Aronian, Levon ARM 2801 24.5
20
433.50
2 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2744 24.0
18
447.00
3 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2802 23.5
19
431.75
4 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2741 21.5
17
398.75
5 Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2741 21.5
17
397.50
6 Karjakin, Sergey RUS 2760 20.5
15
396.00
7 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2791 20.5
16
384.50
8 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2763 19.5
17
362.25
9 Svidler, Peter RUS 2722 19.5
13
361.00
10 Eljanov, Pavel UKR 2742 19.0
16
345.00
11 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2771 19.0
12
348.50
12 Mamedov, Rauf AZE 2660 18.0
14
333.75
13 Nepomniachtchi, Ian RUS 2720 18.0
13
326.25
14 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2703 18.0
12
349.50
15 Movsesian, Sergei SVK 2721 17.5
16
315.25
16 Andreikin, Dmitry RUS 2683 17.5
13
314.25
17 Grachev, Boris RUS 2654 16.5
10
313.00
18 Savchenko, Boris RUS 2632 15.5
14
286.25
19 Caruana, Fabiano ITA 2709 13.5
11
249.25
20 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2744 12.5
7
235.25

Full report with pictures and videos to follow...

Streaming video coverage

If you feel like it you can follow the entire action of the round four and a half hours of streaming video coverage provided by the organisers. Notze that there is a maximize button which you can use for a spectacular view on a high-res monitor. Get beer and pretzels. And learn Russian!


Pictures from the Blitz World Championship in Moscow

By Anastasiya Karlovich


The Red Square in Moscow in the night


The event took place in the Red Square mall GUM


At the start of the event FIDE President Kirsan Iljumzhinov handed
over the Chess Oscar for the Best Player of 2009 to Magnus Carlsen


... who does interviews with the press afterwards


Cricket expert, TV aficionado, super-GM, dude: Peter Svidler had a great start at this event


Conversation on the side: Ian Neponiachtchi, Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk


Young chess fans waiting for the action to begin


Bring it on! Rauf Mamedov waiting for Magnus Carlsen


... who arrives in great spirits and demolished him in 42 moves


Arbiter Faik Gasanov starts the clock for a top game (which was drawn in 25 moves)


Spectators could follow the action on large flatscreens


Live coverage as a video feed provided by the Russian Chess Federation


Magnus is losing?? Move 69 in the game Vachier-Lagrave vs Carlsen, which ended 1-0


Move 36 in the game Sergey Karjakin vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, which ended in a perpetual


US GM Hikaru Nakamura gives a young Russian fan his autograph


I know how to handle this kid! Boris Gelfand won both games against Magnus Carlsen

The following pictures are taken from the video feed of the Russian Chess Federation


Aronian being interviewed for Russian TV after his victory at the World Blitz


At the prize giving ceremony at the end of the Blitz Championship


Sergey Karjakin speaks to the players and spectators


Magnus Carlsen receives his third prize


In second place: GM Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan


And the winner: Levon Aronian from Armenia


And finally players and dignitaries collect together for a group photo


Links

The games were broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!


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