Aronian Cracks Berlin’s defense, leads by full points; Keymer scores 1st win

More than halfway through the WR Chess Masters 2023, GM Levon Aronian leads by a full point after defeating GM Anish Giri in the fifth round.

GM Vincent Keymer scored his first win of the event against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov as the latter’s aggressive play culminated in one sacrifice too many. GM Gukesh D had a chance to beat GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in their first ever overboard matchup and jump into sole second, but Nepomniachtchi pulled through. GM R Praggnanandha was also put under serious pressure by GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, but signed a peace agreement at the end of the day, a draw.

In the end, GM Andrey Esipenko couldn’t startle the well-prepared GM Wesley So. Four moves after the opening move were drawn with a triple repetition.

The sixth round begins WednesdayFebruary 22 at 5:00 AM PT/2:00 PM CET.

Monday was a rest day and marked roughly the halfway point of the tournament, which is a total of nine rounds. Aronian led, with So and Gukesh tied for second-third.

On the rest day, the Grand Masters participated in the “WR Table Tennis Masters”. The first WR Chess Masters is packed with unusual but exciting side events, including a bughouse tournament held the day after the main event ends.

As recently as a month ago in Wijk aan Zee, Aronian and Giri had not played a classical game since 2021. Although their last game ended in a 21-move draw in the Italian opener, this game was decisive.

Aronian was surprised at the opening: “I really didn’t expect Berlin [Defense]. So I kind of spent the whole morning preparing for the Open Spanish tournament because that was a problem for me. Last time I played the Spanish Open, I barely broke even against Praggi.” Jokingly, he continued, “I found par.”

The decisive point came in the final match of four games, where Aronian already felt: “It’s a miracle that Black survives here.” Giri didn’t play hard and only moved to defend, 37…Rh4!, which his opponent pointed out in the interview. Aronian turned a full point.

Notably, Aronian’s lifetime score in classic games against Giri is +8 -0 =21 after this game. With this victory, Aronian also breaks into the world’s top 10 list with up to 2750 marks.

Keymer had a tough start to the super tournament, starting with two losses and two draws. In the fifth round, he defeated Abdusattorov, who, after almost winning Tata Steel Chess this year, was undoubtedly among the pre-tournament favorites.

Abdusattorov, who has played both 1.e4 and 1.d4 with White, has not repeated a single opening in two games this tournament with either suit. With the black pieces in this game, he chose a Ragozin variant of Queen’s Gambit Declined, and he sacrificed a pawn right from the opening.

Black had an initiative and a pair of bishops as compensation, and on move 25 he sacrificed the whole rook of pawns. After the game, Keymer said, “…Rxg2 looks incredibly dangerous. Like the fact that this doesn’t lose was kind of a miracle for me… . All of his pieces are great, it’s just… [he has] not enough pieces left.”

This is our Game of the Day, commented by GM Rafael Leitao.

On the extra tower, the German champion defended and won the game. Both Keymer and Abdusatorov enter a five-set tie for last place.

Nepomniachtchi-Gukesh was almost a game changer in this tournament. If Gukesh had won, he would have proved himself against the world’s second-highest ranked player in their first classic (!) and jumped into sole second place as well. They had only played once before, a few weeks ago, in the 2023 Airthings Masters online.

The Indian grandmaster chose Queen’s Gambit Accepted, an opening he played for the first time against Soi earlier in this event. After Black’s comfortable equalization, the tide began to turn after a strong kingside trade that was initiated on move 22.

The clearest shot and biggest miss occurred on move 33. If 33…b3 had been played, he probably would have won the game, but after the game resumed, Nepomniachtchi ingeniously found a perfect defense.

Praggnanandhaa-Duda introduced the Petroff Defense, one of the most serious openings in chess. However, the Indian grandmaster gained a clear advantage in the heavy final match, and the critical moment came in the move on the 29th.

29.g4, as in the game, gave the place to hit for a draw. If white had played 29.a5!! It would have been difficult for Black to defend against a passed e-warrior with a dangerous king. On the critical line starting with 29…b5, there are three great moves for White, including a pawn sacrifice – it’s not clear that they would have been played in the game, but White would have a chance to win.

Esipenko-So was the first game to end. The players watched last year’s game, where Esipenko played the black side (Erigaisi-Esipenko, Chartres 2022). This time he repeated Erigais’ choice 14.Rc1 with the white pieces, but So deviated with 14…Na5 (Esipenko played 14…Rac8).

Four moves later, the players began repeating moves with their knights and agreed to a draw after three repetitions. That leaves So near the top of the leaderboard, a point behind Aronian, while Duda is in last place in a large field of players on two points after five rounds.

All Games – Round 5