The Week in Chess

Levon Aronian beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 3-1 in the first set of their semi-final of the Airthings Masters Semifinals. In game one Aronian got a great position out of the opening with black in a Berlin Defence and took that on to a win. In game two Aronian won the exchange and was completely winning (33.Rxf6 was a very clean way to do it) but short of time he allowed MVL right back in the game and it was eventually drawn.

"The play was OK, the speed was not." Aronian said afterwards.

Game 3 was another Berlin but this time MVL was pressing throughout and Aronian was flirting with disaster on the clock from move 26 on for about 10 moves, after this the position more or less equalised and was drawn. In the final game Aronian played much quicker as white and eventually got a winning position, he then blundered a piece but fortunately for him his position was so good before he was still at least equal and eventually went on to win the game and set 3-1.

Teimour Radjabov managed to keep Daniil Dubov mostly under control and was slightly better in the first two drawn games, in game three he managed to win a pawn, he then lost this in time pressure but Dubov put himself in difficulty again almost straight away and Radjabov managed to convert a new extra pawn he earned himself. In the final game Dubov finally managed to get a sharp position and sacrificed a piece, Radjabov managed to find a way to return it favourably and went on to win game and set 3-1.

Semifinal day 2 Friday 1st Jan 2020