Game 2!
Levon Aronian will be walking into this second game of the match with a mixture of tension and relief. Tension, because the stakes have never been higher. And relief, because he was just a whisker away from losing the first game against Hans Niemann, a result that would have left him in a deeply unpleasant must-win spot in order to tie the match and stay in the running for the title.
As things stand, he's got every reason to feel confident. He's saved a crucial half-point in the first game as Black, and now he will have the slight edge offered by the White pieces. So far this tournament, Levon has knocked out the two highest rated players in the world: Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. And now he's just one game away from potentially securing a huge victory in a tournament that offers one of the largest prize pools in competitive chess!
But it's unlikely that Hans is going to make it easy for him, and we might just see him trying to fight for the initiative from the get-go regardless of the fact that he has the Black pieces. Hans has shown time and again that he is a fearless player, and his habit of pushing for the win whenever possible is something that works out for him more often than it backfires.
Not long to go now until game 2 begins. Will we see a winner, or are the players on course for another grueling tiebreaker?!
Aronian targets the center early on, the same variation that he was studying with Hikaru Nakamura ahead of their game. Meanwhile, Hans Niemann did not train with his natural partner for the round, Magnus Carlsen, for obvious reasons!
Aronian now has a better pawn presence in the center, but on the other hand the queen has been dragged out. That could make her an easier target for Niemann in the future.
Niemann snipes the queen from afar with his bishop, forcing an immediate retreat.
Aronian drops back with his queen while still staying close enough to his central pawn to defend it.
This is a crazy long think here by Hans Niemann early on! 10 minutes in the tank already. Could this be nerves? Either way, it's hard to see this not becoming a big factor down the line!
Looks like Hans has finally settled on a way of continuing here. It's a natural move, cracking open the diagonal for his dark-squared bishop. But again, the big detail here is whether or not he will end up regretting burning so much time on the clock for this!
Aronian replies quickly, developing his knight. The thing as well about Niemann's clock use is that it will have given Aronian a lot of time to figure out what he considers to be the optimal piece setup for himself. A very good deal for him!
A strange looking move
Niemann jumps his knight out towards the center, but it looks a little clumsy here. It stands in front of one of his central pawns, and also blocks the path of his light-squared bishop. Let's wait and see what specific idea he has in mind...
Aronian reinforces his central pawn from a distance, and at the same time looks to push a second pawn forward in the future to grab even more of the pie.
He continues to play for a somewhat mysterious arrangement of pieces. Now his other knight jumps to the center, blocking his queen's diagonal. Is this last-minute nerves? Either way, the setup is giving Aronian a free hand to continue improving his position...
Aronian pushes his flank pawn, not so much to grab space but to shut down the forward jump of Niemann's newly posted knight.
Niemann steps his bishop out, and this move is one that seems a lot easier to understand. He's cleared the last rank, meaning he can castle to the right next.
Aronian also goes about clearing his last rank. He'll step the knight out next, and then be ready to castle on the same side. The problem for Niemann is that we could be drifting towards a middlegame that looks a lot like a regular game of chess, but one where Aronian has a commanding lead in space & central control.
Niemann does castle, and now I think Aronian will be wondering whether he should first push his pawn up to take hold of the center, or if it's safer to develop his knight out first and make that more committal decision later on.
Aronian does settle on the knight move, preparing to match Niemann's last move and castle to the right hand side next. Advantage Aronian in the early stages of the final 30+30 game of the tournament.
Niemann has to be very precise here in the next 3-4 moves. In chess, when one side has the space advantage it can be really easy to go wrong, and if you do your pieces can end up feeling suffocated. So Niemann has a tricky balance to strike: on the one hand he needs to take his time to find the right moves. On the other, he can't afford to use up much more of the clock because of that huge think he took at the very start of the game.
Hans Niemann is known for his fearlessness on the board, but Levon Aronian might be feeling like he's taking too many liberties with this last move. Pushing the pawn up weakens his kingside, and there's no real attacking prospects on the horizon. Things could sour quickly here for Hans.
Aronian continues his principled play
Not much hesitation from Levon. He sticks with the game plan, grabbing the center in full. The main problem Hans has to deal with is that his knights have no forward jumps, while they also cramp the vision of his other pieces. That leaves him stuck for options.
I think Niemann's intention here is to shift the dark-squared bishop towards the other diagonal, in order to pressure Aronian's center. But objectively it's not a very good move, as it now leaves his dark squares that bit weaker by arranging yet another one of his pawns on a light color.
Levon could even think about pushing his pawn forward here, aiming to steamroll Hans with the avalanche of pawns...
Tempered play
Aronian looks to improve his position a little, bringing his rook to the central file. He discards the more aggressive possibility of pushing the central pawns further forward, at least for now. Levon's strategy has looked great so far, playing with enough aggression to set himself up to push for a win while at the same time not taking any undue risk.
Niemann targets the center
Hans follows through on his last pawn move, which had cleared the square for his bishop to move to and strike at Aronian's center.
Aronian overprotects
He wants to cut out any tactics in advance. And the best way of doing this is often to lend even more protection to the target that you're defending (in this case his central pawn).
The move also has a second idea in mind for the future, which is to jump the knight forward. That's now lingering in the air, and would be the first invasion onto enemy camp for either side.
This is a fantastic move by Hans Niemann. He's not afraid of leaving some weak dark squares in his camp. What he wants is to remove this flank pawn of Aronian so that his knight can move forward in the near future and pressure the center. With this move, Aronian is likely to feel a little unsettled for the first time in the game, though he can still keep an advantage with best play.
Just as Hans raises the stakes, Levon finds the best and most energetic reply. He breaks in the center and puts Niemann's knight under fire. The point is that if pawns were to be traded on the left hand side, that knight would seek to move towars that square (green arrow). So Levon is robbing Hans of the time to get what he wants.
Niemann goes for concrete measures
It's calculation time for both players, as Niemann ignores the attack on his knight and counters with an attack of his own. This is going to force Levon to capture the knight and go down a forcing sequence. If he calculates right, he'll emerge with an advantage. But one slip-up and Niemann could easily equalize or more.
The more I look at this, the more that I think Aronian is running very little risk here. He's very likely to end up either a pawn to the good, or with better placed pieces, or perhaps even both. Niemann has to be extremely careful to not let his position degrade quickly from here.
A big moment here. If Aronian finds the strong knight jump (marked with a yellow arrow), then Niemann's queenside pawns are going to fall and Levon is going to have a near-winning advantage!
He finds it! Levon has been playing immaculately so far in this game. Now Niemann faces a really difficult choice. Does he let the pawn fall, or does he burn a few minutes on the clock trying to figure out the messy tactical line after the temporary knight sacrifice in the center(green arrow)?
1 minute to survive!
Hans burns the majority of his clock time and eventually takes back the pawn. But now Aronian is going to swoop in with his knight when that piece is going to be a major thorn in his side.
This is the problem for Hans. Now the knight is well supported, while there's also attacks on his knight and bishop!
Niemann quickly jumps forward. He needs to eliminate this pawn asap if he wants any chance at holding.
The easiest path for Levon Aronian here seems to be to just take the bishop with his knight. That leads to an eventual win of material (an exchange, at least).
Aronian moves in with a fork against king and queen, forcing Niemann to surrender his rook.
Aronian has gone a different direction to the expected move of knight takes bishop, but the outcome is similar. He's now up an exchange!
Levon Aronian has a winning position, but the way that things have shaped up, he must find one move and one move only! He needs to ignore the attack against his rook, and instead counter with a pin against Niemann's knight! Anything else, and Hans is back in the game!
This could well be the knock-out punch. Levon Aronian didn't need too much time on the clock to spot the crucial tactic. Now his piece coordination is excellent, and it's looking like a matter of technique from here on out!
More tactics!
Niemann is doing a good job of posing as many practical problem as possible. He's challenging Levon to find the best move, which is to sacrifice the rook! The point is that if king takes rook, then Niemann's knight would fall and with it the game.
Aronian is in no mood to let up! He again plays the strongest move by far, and now the dust is beginning to settle, with Niemann finding himself in a very much lost endgame.
More trickery!
Hans Niemann is really showing his tenacity here. Again he plays a move that ties Aronian's hands. He has to drop the king back to the first rank directly in front of the pawn. Anything else reduces his advantage by a wide margin.
Levon Aronian hasn't put a foot wrong at any stage of this game. This may well have been the last difficult move to find. Now the pawns are going to begin to drop for Niemann, and the extra rook should decide matters.
Aronian looking to collect the central pawn soon. Besides being down to seconds, the problem Niemann is facing is that Levon's moves should all be easy from here!
Just so hard to see how Niemann can create any sort of threat here.
Defending his knight, so that the pawn stays alive.
Aronian chops off one of the dangerous pawns. There's just no way to make progress from here for Niemann...
Niemann is looking to fork the rook if Aronian takes the pawn next.
Aronian covers the forking square, to prepare to take the pawn.
Niemann slides his rook over, renewing the threat of the fork if Aronian captures it now.
Aronian ejects the strong knight from the central square.
A tricky in-between move, hoping Aronian goes wrong with the choice of square for his rook. It has to be said that Niemann is finding all the little tricks available, it's just that it will almost certainly not be enough.
Looks like Niemann is going for the right-hand pawn. But it's not a significant one in this position.
Aronian is happy to be able to keep this pawn in the end. It could be the one that settles matters a few moves from now.
Niemann gives a check, but there's no venom to it.
Hans Niemann throws in the towel and, with that, Levon Aronian is this year's Grand Slam Champion in Las Vegas!
It was a masterpiece of a game, and a fitting way to cap off what's been an absolutely incredible performance by the seasoned veteran. He took down every player in his path on the way to eventual victory, beginning by knocking out Magnus Carlsen in the group stage tiebreaker and then proceeding to edge out Hikaru Nakamura and Arjun Erigaisi to set up a hotly anticipated final clash with his fellow American grandmaster, Hans Neimann.
The day started off deceptively, with Hans obtaining a winning position from the White side in game 1. But unfortunately for Hans, he was unable to apply the finishing touches in the tricky bishop endgame that the two players found themselves in. In game 2 however, Levon Aronian showed no such difficulties, and once he established an advantage in the early stages, he was like a dog with a bone. He did not allow even the slightest opening that might have let Hans back into the game, finding best move after best move until Niemann's resistance was exhausted.
Commiserations to Hans Niemann, who will no doubt be upset that he stumbled at the last hurdle. But congratulations are very much in order for him as well, as he collects a big paycheck and makes his mark on the tour with his first ever appearance in a major Freestyle event.
I hope you've enjoyed following the action these past five days, and thanks for watching! We shall be back with more Freestyle commentary in the future, with the series finishing in Cape Town, South Africa towards the end of the year.
Until next time!