“Aronian can’t crack Ding” was the title the online chess site chessvibes.com used to describe the heroic defense Ding Liren put up to counter Levon Aronian’s aggressive plays in the first game of the World Cup Finals, and that description can in fact be used for the entire four games of the Finals — Aronian kept getting the initiative but Ding put up superhuman defense and continually frustrated all winning attempts.
The 4-game match is now over and the score is 2-2. Now we go into tiebreaks:
First, two rapid games (25 minutes plus 10 seconds added after every move) are played;
If the score is still tied another two rapid games (this time with a faster pace of 10 minutes each plus 10 seconds added after every move);
If still tied then two blitz games (five minutes plus three seconds added after every move) are played;
Finally, if still tied then an Armageddon game (in which a draw counts as a win for Black) is played. White has five minutes and Black has four minutes, with an increment of three seconds/move starting from move 61.
The tension has mostly disappeared from the World Cup. Three weeks ago there were 128 players intently going over their opening preparation, hoping to earn one of the two slots to the Candidates tournament to be held in Berlin in March 2018. Now, most of the players have already gone home or are playing in the Isle of Man Open (we will cover that separately) and only Ding Liren and Levon Aronian remain. Both finalists will be going to Berlin next year and the only thing they are playing for now is the prestige of being called the 2017 World Cup Champion and the first prize of $120,000. The loser can lick his wounds with the consolation prize of $80,000.
Levon Grigori Aronian (born Oct. 6, 1982) of Armenia has already been here before — he won the Chess World Cup 2005 held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, defeating former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov 3-1 in the finals. After that Aronian led the Armenian national team to the gold medals in the 2006 Turin, 2008 Dresden and 2012 Istanbul chess Olympiads. Imagine that — Armenia is a small country in the Caucasus Region with a total population of three million (compare that with Metro Manila, which has around 14 million) and they have won the chess Olympiad three times! In addition to that he won the World Chess 960 (Random Chess) in 2006 and 2007. He was the World Rapid Champion in 2009 and World Blitz Champion in 2010. Aronian is a national hero in Armenia — he was named the best sportsman of Armenia in 2005 and was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sport of the Republic of Armenia in 2009.
You know, if Wesley So had beaten Ding and qualified for the finals I would be able to make the cheeky claim that this is an All-Filipino Final — Aronian is getting married at the end of this month to Filipino Woman International Master Arianne Caoili. He will become an honorary Filpino!
Ding Liren is still on his way up. He was born Oct. 24, 1992 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
Interesting Trivia: Whereas most of the ethnic Chinese in the Philippines originally came from Fujian, and those in Hong Kong are from Guangdong, Wenzhou people make up 90% of the ethnic Chinese in Italy (!). How did that happen? I do not know.
Ding is a 3-time Chinese Champion and one of the key figures for the Chinese gold medal in the 2014 Tromso Olympiad. He is the first Chinese to ever qualify for the Candidates’ Tournament. Everybody was predicting that the prodigy Wei Yi would be the first, but Ding made it ahead.
The famous chess author columnist Leonard Barden describes his style thus: “The 24-year-old has an individual and pragmatic style, playing for initiative yet a highly professional grinder over long games.” The evolution of his style is similar to Wesley So. They both started out with naked aggression — exciting games, tactics everywhere, mates coming out of nowhere. Then, several years into their professional career, decided that to proceed farther their styles had to be solidified. Now both of them play the same way.
Here is the most interesting game from the Ding vs Aronian match.
Ding, Liren (2771) — Aronian, Levon (2802) [E05]
FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (7.2), 24.09.2017
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3
Once again the Catalan.
3…d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4
Remember the Wesley So vs Ding Liren game we looked at last Tuesday? Wesley was White and after 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dxc4 5.0-0 a6 6.a4 Ding commented that 6.Qc2 was a better move than 6.a4. So what is the difference between that game and this one? Well, here in Ding vs Aronian White had already played Qc2 and Black has no time to defend his c4-pawn with Nb8-c6-a5 as White can immediately take the c4-pawn.
8…Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bg5 a5 11.Nc3 Na6 12.e3
Ding remarked after the game that the purpose of this move is to give his queen a retreat square on e2, after which maybe he can go for e3-e4.
12…Nb4 13.Rfd1 Nd7
Aronian has great experience with the Catalan. In this position he felt that his knight would be stronger than his e7-bishop, so he exchanges off the bishop.
14.Bxe7 Qxe7 15.e4 Rfd8 16.Rd2?!
Ding later regretted this move as he loses the coordination between his two rooks.
16…Nb6 17.Qe2 Be8!
Going for …c7-c5.
18.b3 c5! 19.Qe3 Rac8!?
Obviously intending to push …c5-c4.
20.Rc1 c4 21.d5 Qc5! 22.Qxc5 Rxc5
It is still too early to claim an advantage for either color, but Ding has to be careful as Black might get a dangerous passed pawn on the queenside.
23.dxe6 Rxd2 24.Nxd2 fxe6 25.Bf1 cxb3 26.Nxb3 Rc7 27.Nxa5 Nxa4 28.Na2 Rxc1 29.Nxc1 Nc5
Ding has reacted well to Aronian’s queenside pressure and the position is equal. Now after White’s f2-f3 and Kg1-f2-e3 he has nothing to fear. The next move changes that.
30.Ncb3?! b6! 31.Nxc5 bxa5
Maybe Ding had only expected 31…bxc5, for now he realized the trouble he is in and spent 20 precious minutes trying to figure out the best move for White.
32.Bc4
White has to keep watch over the a-pawn. 32.Nxe6 a4 33.Nd4 a3 34.Nb3 Bf7 puts him in a very dangerous position.
32…a4 33.Kf1 a3 34.Nb3 Ba4 35.Nc1
The most obvious move is 35.Na1 but then 35…Nc2 36.Bxe6+ Kf8 37.Nxc2 Bxc2 38.Ba2 Bxe4 39.Ke2 Bg6 40.Kd2 Bf7 41.Bxf7 Kxf7 42.Kc2 Ke6 43.Kb3 Ke5 Ding’s kingside pawns are vulnerable and will be lost.
35…Bc2 36.Ke2 Bxe4 37.Bxe6+ Kf8 38.Kd2 Ke7 39.Bb3 Nd5 40.Ne2 Kd6
We have reached 40 moves and each player gets an additional 30 minutes. The assessment is still the same as when Ding first made the mistake on move 30 — White is not clearly lost but must be very careful as Black can go for pushing the a-pawn and then switch to the kingside.
41.f3 Bb1
[41…Bxf3 42.Nd4 and then Nb5+]
42.Kc1 Bg6 43.Nd4 Nc7 44.Ne2?
After the game Ding remarked that better was 44.Bc2! Kc5 45.Bxg6 hxg6 46.Nc2 Nb5 47.Kb1. Ding: “Since the black pawns are doubled, I think I should hold.”
44…Kc5 45.Nf4 Bf5 46.g4 Bd7 47.g5?! Nb5 48.Bg8 Bf5 49.Nh5 g6 50.Ng3 Bd3 51.Bxh7 Nd4 52.Ne4+ Kb4 53.Bg8 <D>
Position after 53.Bg8
This is the critical position. Aronian can either take the pawn on f3 or play Nb3+ and try to push his a-pawn. What do you think is correct?
53…Nxf3?
I do not blame Aronian for missing this as it is all very complicated, but a better try is 53…Nb3+ 54.Bxb3 Kxb3 55.Nd2+ (55.Nc5+ Kc3 56.Nxd3 a2! the pawn queens) 55…Kb4 and now white cannot approach the a3-pawn and Aronian can go for the kingside pawns, for example: 56.h4! (56.Ne4 Kc4 57.Nd2+ Kd4! 58.h4 Ke3 59.Nb3 Bf5! 60.Nc5 Kxf3 wins) 56…Kc5! 57.Ne4+ Kd4 58.h5 gxh5 59.g6 h4 60.g7 Bc4 61.Nf6 Ke5 62.g8Q Bxg8 63.Nxg8 Kf4! (not 63…h3 64.Nh6 Kf4 65.Ng4 Kxf3 66.Nh2+ Kg2 67.Ng4 is only a draw) 64.Nh6 Kxf3 and wins.
54.Nf6 Kc5 55.h3 Kd4 56.Ba2 Nxg5
By this time both players had used up their additional 30 minutes’ thinking time and were existing solely on the 30-second increment so please do not be too harsh on the players.
57.h4 Ne4 58.Nd7 Nc5 59.Nf6 Ke5?! 60.Nd5 Bf5 61.Ne3 Nd3+ 62.Kc2! Nb4+ 63.Kb3 Nxa2 64.Kxa2 Ke4 65.Nc2 Kf4 66.Nd4 Kg4 67.Kxa3 Kxh4 68.Kb2 Kg3 69.Kc3 Kf2 70.Kd2 Bg4 71.Nc2 g5 72.Ne3 Be2 73.Nd5 Bg4 74.Nf6 Bf5 75.Kd1 ½-½
A close call for Ding and a bitter disappointment for Aronian.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
