Chess World Cup 2017 Final Game 4 - Tblisi

In game 4 it was a another case of oh so close he could practically taste it for Aronian. Ding got himself into all sorts of positional trouble straight out of the opening. From there on things continued to look bleak for the Chinese player who spent most of the game heavily dug into defence mode.

At one point it seemed as if Ding had no chance of survival at all, but for time on the clock – so he started to play more quickly so that he could place Aronian under even more time pressure.

The strategy worked as Aronian was not able to find the key moves to drive home his advantage.

In the end we had the fourth draw in a row that will take us through tie breaks for the final.

Ding,Liren (2771) - Aronian,Levon (2802)

FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (7.4), 26.09.2017

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 h6 7.Bxf6 Qxf6 8.Bxc4 c5 9.0–0 0–0 10.e5 D39: Queen's Gambit Declined: Ragozin Defence with 5 Bg5 dxc4 

10...Qd8! 11.Ne4 Black must now prevent a3. 

11...cxd4 12.Qe2 Bd7 13.Rfd1 Nc6

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14.Ng3N [14.a3 Be7 15.b4 Qb8 16.Ng3 b5 17.Bxb5 Nxe5 18.Bxd7 Nxd7 19.Nxd4 1/2–1/2 (101) Grischuk,A (2736)-Aronian, L (2781) Linares 2010] 
14...Bc5 15.a3 Ne7ƒ White is under pressure. 
16.Ne4 Bb6 17.Nxd4 Ng6! 18.Qh5 Qh4 19.Qxh4 Nxh4 20.a4 Ng6 21.a5 Bxd4! 22.Rxd4 Bc6 23.b4 Nxe5 

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Strongly threatening ...Rad8. 
24.b5 Bxe4! 25.Rxe4 Nd7 26.Rd4 Nc5 27.Rad1 Rfc8 28.h4 Kf8 29.h5 Ke7 30.Rg4 Rg8 31.Be2 b6 32.Bf3 Rac8 33.axb6 axb6 34.Ra1 Rc7 35.Bc6 f5 36.Rg3 Kf7 37.Rd1 Ra7 38.Rg6 Ra3 39.g4 fxg4! 40.Rxg4 Rh3 41.Be4 Nxe4 42.Rxe4 Rxh5µ Endgame KRR-KRR 
43.Rd7+ Kf6 44.Rd6 Re5 45.Rxe5 Kxe5 46.Rxb6 KR-KR 
46...g5 [46...Kf6µ] 
47.Rb7= 

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The position is equal. 
47...h5 48.b6 h4 49.Rf7 Rd8 [49...Rb8!? 50.b7™ g4=] 
50.b7 Rd1+ 51.Kg2 Rb1 52.f3 Precision: White = 67%, Black = 69%. ½–½