ARONIAN vs KARJAKIN – SINQUEFIELD CUP 2018 ROUND 1

Aronian switched to 1.e4 for the opening round of the Sinquefield Cup. This resulted in him facing the Berlin Defence, an opening that he plays as Black. Playing the opposite colour for one of your openings can prove useful to see new possibilities and ideas from the other side of the board.

During the post-game interview Aronian said: “My Year so far is pretty dreadful. It can’t get any worse. I might as well try something new to get myself hyped up.”

Today’s game features a Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense that includes some Q&A style annotations.

While playing through the game, scroll slowly so that when you get to the questions you can put some time on the clock (ten to fifteen minutes) and try and find the solution.

Aronian,Levon (2767) - Karjakin,Sergey (2773)

6th Sinquefield Cup GCT 2018 Saint Louis (1), 18.08.2018

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0–0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 h5 C67: Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defence: 4 0–0 Nxe4 
11.Bg5 [11.Bf4 Be7 12.Rad1 Be6 13.Ng5 Rh6 14.Rfe1 Bb4 15.a3 Bxc3 16.bxc3 Rd8 17.Rxd8+ Kxd8 18.g4 hxg4 19.hxg4 1/2–1/2 (37) Vachier Lagrave,M (2779)-Karjakin,S (2773) Saint Louis 2018] 
11...Be6 12.Rfd1 Be7 13.Rd2 Rd8 And now ...Bxg5 would win. 
14.Rxd8+ Kxd8 15.Rd1+ Ke8 16.b3 h4 17.Bc1 

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17...a5N [17...b6 18.Ne2 1/2–1/2 (56) Sjugirov,S (2647) -Georgescu,T (2492) Iasi 2014] 
18.Ne2 Bd5 19.Ne1 Be6 20.Nf4 Bc8 21.Nf3 Rh6 22.Nh2 Rh8 23.Ng4 Nh6 24.Ne3 Nf5 25.Nc4 g5 26.Ne2 b6 27.Nd2 Ng7 28.Ne4 Ne6 29.Nf6+ Bxf6! 30.exf6 Rg8 31.f3 Rg6 32.Bb2 Bd7 33.Nc1 c5 34.Be5 [34.Nd3² Nd4 35.c3] 
34...Kd8 [34...Nd4!=] 
35.Nd3!² Kc8 

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36.Bb2 aiming for Ne5. 
36...Be8 37.Re1 Rg8 38.Re4 Kd8 39.Kf2 Nf8 40.Ne5 Nh7 [Black should try 40...Ne6 ] 
41.f4 Rh8 [41...gxf4± 42.Rxf4 Kc8] 
42.Nf3+- gxf4 43.Rxf4 Nf8 44.Rxh4 Rxh4 45.Nxh4± Endgame KBN-KBN 
45...Bc6 46.Ke3 Kd7 47.g4 Ng6 48.Nxg6 fxg6+- KB-KB 
49.Be5 b5 50.Bxc7 a4 51.Bb6 

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51...axb3? 
Can you find an improvement on the move Black played?

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[51...g5 52.f7 (52.Bxc5 Ke6+-) 52...Ke7 53.Bd8+ (53.Bxc5+ Kxf7 54.Kf2 Be4±) 53...Kxf7 54.Bxg5 b4] 
52.cxb3 g5? [52...c4 53.bxc4 bxc4] 
53.Bxc5 

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If it were White's move now, can you find the killer blow?

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f7 would kill now.White is clearly winning. 
53...Ke6 54.Bd4 Bg2 

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See if you can find the next powerful attacking move for White.

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55.h4! gxh4 56.Kf4 Kf7 57.g5 h3 58.Kg3 Kg6 59.Be3 [¹59.a4 bxa4 60.bxa4] 
59...Kf7 60.Bd2 [¹60.a4 bxa4 61.bxa4] 
60...Kg6 61.a4 bxa4 62.bxa4 Kf7 63.a5 Bf1 64.Bf4 Kg6 65.Kg4 Kf7 66.Kf5 Bd3+ 

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Instead of just trying to find the next move for White, because there is only one legal move; try rather to see why it forced Black to resign in three moves...

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67.Ke5! Be2 68.Kd6 Bd3 69.Kc5  1–0