Artemiev
Aronian
Artemiev
 
Aronian
 
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
1
14
28 turns without comments
15

Artemiev with a typical position that he likes, so he's got a lot of experience here. But objectively Aronian is doing very well here, with excellent space/control in the center.

-07:-01 Rb1
15
1 turn without comment
16

Preparing to transfer the knight to the queenside, and also opening up the vision for his bishop.

-03:-16 Ne1
16
17
2 turns without comments
17

Aronian will be eyeing up kingside attacking chances over the coming moves, so he begins by grabbing more space.

-02:-47 f5
18
-04:-04 Qc1
18
20
4 turns without comments
20

Artemiev has to find a really difficult move here, dropping the knight back to where it came from! The point is that he must challenge Aronian's very strong knight to ease the pressure from the kingside attack.

-04:-46 Ng5
21
1 turn without comment
21

!!GREAT MOVE!!

Aronian immediately capitalizes on Artemiev's mistake, bringing his final minor piece into the game. The build-up of forces is very dangerous here.

04:17 Bg4
22

??MISTAKE??

Looking to ease the pressure, but now Aronian can take the piece and fracture Artemiev's structure, with an advantage.

01:44 Nf3
22
24
4 turns without comments
24

Aronian ends up trading the wrong minor pieces on the kingside. All of a sudden, this endgame offers more practical chances for Artemiev in my view, due to the queenside pressure outweighing the kingside attack.

04:56 Rf7
25

But Artemiev immediately goes wrong. Now Aronian can move in with his queen and hit the pawn, which will be tough to deal with.

Qc5
25
26
3 turns without comments
27

??BLUNDER??

Artemiev blocks the attack in the most natural way, but now his king's defenses are going to be stretched too thin!

01:42 Re4
27

!!GREAT MOVE!!

Aronian finds the killer continuation. The rook is hanging, while the threatened rook lift is extremely nasty.

02:00 Qh3
28
28
2 turns without comments
29

A very ugly move. But the problem was recapturing with the pawn would have cost Artemiev a pawn.

06:30 Rxg3
29
1 turn without comment
30

Artemiev may have overlooked that now Aronian has a choice of which pawn to take. The central one looks best to capture!

04:06 Rg1
30
31
2 turns without comments
31

!!GREAT MOVE!!

A crunching exchange sacrifice. It's clear that Artemiev is the one hanging on for dear life here, with Aronian able to force a draw by repetition if the rook is taken.

03:30 Rxf3
32
1 turn without comment
32

Patient play by Aronian, who knows he's in no rush to find the decisive blow. Now his queenside is safe against the pressure.

03:58 Rd7
33
39
13 turns without comments
39

Aronian wins the match!

He takes a draw in a winning position, since he knows that in Armaggedon tiebreaks, a draw from the Black side is as good as a win. Very convincing play by the in-form Levon Aronian, who makes it look easy against a player who has shown an ability to compete against the world's best in rapid & blitz formats.

03:37 Qf3+