After the Sinquefield Cup came the Rapid/Blitz tournament played in the same venue, the Saint Louis Chess Club. The format is exactly the same as in Paris and Leuven, with nine rounds of 25-minute rapid split over the first three days followed by 18 rounds of 5-minute blitz on the next two. The Rapid portion has double-weight — you multiply its results by 2 before adding the points to the Blitz portion to get the combined standings.
Once again instead of the increment where a few seconds are added to your block after every move (the Fischer clock) we instead have a delay (this is called the Bronstein clock): 10 seconds per move in rapid and three seconds per move in blitz. The 10 or three seconds is just a delay before the clock starts running — it is not added to your time. In other words, once you are in time trouble you can no longer get out of it by moving instantaneously in the next few moves.
In this year’s Grand Chess Tour there are three such rapid/blitz tournaments and the participants can only play in two of them. Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had already played in the Paris and Louvain legs and were thus not eligible for Saint Louis. Their replacements though were more than adequate. First you have the greatest player of all time Garry Kasparov who agreed to come out of retirement (that was 12 years ago) and play. Other wild cards who came just for this leg were Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) and Leinier Dominguez Perez (Cuba), both of whom were former World Blitz Chess Champions.
The presence of Garry Kasparov ensured that the Saint Louis Chess Club would be jampacked for the duration of the tournament and that all online records would be broken.
Aronian came off the gate with a beautiful win against Navara, which I will show you later, and kept among the leaders through the 1st and 2nd day. He was obviously in good form and unleashed his patented Ruy Lopez treatment from the Black side of the Spanish Opening. We will also show this to you later.
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2017 Saint Louis Rapid
Saint Louis, USA
Aug. 14-16, 2017
Final Standings (with Rapid Ratings)
1. Levon Aronian ARM 2794, 6.0/9
2-3. Hikaru Nakamura USA 2822, Fabiano Caruana USA 2700, 5.5/9
4. Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2810, 5.0/9
5. Lenier Dominguez Perez CUB 2803, 4.5/9
6-7. Le Quang Liem VIE 2761, Sergey Karjakin RUS 2765, 4.0/9
8-10. Garry Kasparov RUS, Viswanathan Anand IND 2778, David Navara CZE 2737, 3.5/9
Time Control: 25 minutes play-to-finish with a 10 second delay each move.
Take a look at the one on 7th place in the tournament crosstable — Sergey Karjakin. You might think he is down and out for the rest of the event, but Karjakin scored 8/9 in the 1st half of the Blitz portion to almost catch up with Aronian in the combined standings. But he then slowed down in the second half with losses against Nakamura and Navara and by the end of the tournament Aronian was 3 points ahead in the combined standings.
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2017 Saint Louis Blitz
Saint Louis, USA
Aug. 17-18, 2017
Final Standings (with Blitz Ratings)
1. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2807, 13.5/18
2. Levon Aronian ARM 2794, 12.5/18
3. Hikaru Nakamura USA 2868, 10.5/18 4 Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2787, 10.0/18
5. Garry Kasparov RUS, 9.0/18
6. Le Quang Liem VIE 2747, 8.5/18
7. Leinier Dominguez Perez CUB 2796, 7.5/18
8. Viswanathan Anand IND 2756, 7.0/18
9. David Navara CZE 2748, 6.0/18
10. Fabiano Caruana USA 2806, 5.5/18
Time Control: Five minutes play-to-finish with a 3 second delay each move.
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2017 Saint Louis Combined Standings
Saint Louis, USA
Aug. 17-18, 2017
Combined Standings (Rapid counts double)
1. Levon Aronian ARM, 24.5/36
2-3. Sergey Karjakin RUS, Hikaru Nakamura USA, 21.5/36
4. Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS, 20.0/36
5-7. Leinier Dominguez Perez CUBN, Fabiano Caruana USA, Le Quang Liem VIE, 16.5/36
8. Garry Kasparov RUS 16.0/36
9. Viswanathan Anand IND 14.0/3610 David Navara CZE 13.0/36
Here are the games I promised to show you.
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Aronian, Levon (2799) — Navara, David (2737) [E15]
Saint Louis Rapid 2017 USA (1.4), 14.08.2017
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7
The Queen’s Indian is Navara’s main defense against 1.d4.
7.Nc3 0–0 8.Bg2 d5 9.cxd5 exd5 10.0–0
Black has two main plans here, either to go for the old school Karpov…c7–c5 or Kramnik’s more modern approach with…c7–c6.
10…Re8 11.Ne5 Bb7 12.Qc2 c5 13.dxc5 bxc5 14.Rad1 Qc8
Black has two hanging pawns in the center but it is not easy getting to them. Aronian has a new idea though.
15.e4 Bf8
[15…d4 16.Nd5 Nxd5 17.exd5 Nd7 18.Nc6 does not look very appealing for Black]
16.f4 d4 17.Nd5 Nxd5 18.exd5 f6 <D>
Position after 18…f6
Trying to expel the knight. This is much more appealing than 18…Nd7 19.Bh3
19.Rde1! fxe5 20.fxe5
Aronian’s threat is e5–e6 followed by Qf7.
20…Nd7 21.e6 Nf6 22.Rxf6! gxf6 23.Qf5
New threat is Re1–e4–g4.
23…Qd8? 24.Re4 Re7 25.Rg4+ Kh8
Hopeless:
25…Rg7 26.Be4 Rg6 27.Rxg6+ hxg6 28.Qxg6+ Bg7 29.Bh6 Qc7 30.Qh7+ Kf8 31.Qh8+ Ke7 32.Qxg7+ Kd6 33.Bf4#;
25…Bg7 26.Be4 there is no defense
26.Be4 Rc8 27.Rh4 Kg8 28.Rxh7 Bxd5 29.Qg6+ Rg7 30.Qh5! Bxe4 31.Rh8# 1–0
Aronian and his Black Ruy Lopez.
Levon Aronian has a good score from the Black side of the Spanish Opening. There would usually be a clash on the queenside and then he suddenly swings over to the kingside through the f-file. Maybe doubled rooks, or maybe a knight on f4, then the attack comes. Here is a famous example from many years ago against no less than Magnus Carlsen.
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Carlsen, Magnus (2693) — Aronian, L (2759) [C84]
Elista RUS Elista RUS (1), 27.05.2007
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a4 Rb8 9.axb5 axb5 10.Nc3 0–0 11.h3
First a queenside clash.
11…Nb4 12.Ne2 c5 13.Ng3 Be6 14.Bxe6 fxe6 15.c3 Nc6 16.Re1 Qd7 17.d4 exd4 18.cxd4 c4 19.Bg5 h6 20.d5
Now Aronian will switch to the kingside.
20…exd5 21.Bxf6 Bxf6 22.Qxd5+ Rf7 23.Qd2 Ne5 24.Nxe5 Bxe5 25.Ne2 Rbf8 26.Rf1 Rf3! 27.Ra3
[27.gxf3 Rxf3 28.Ra3 Qxh3 29.Nf4! Bxf4 30.Qxf4 Qxf1+ 31.Kxf1 Rxf4 with an easily winning endgame]
27…Rxa3 28.bxa3 Qc6 29.Nd4 Bxd4 30.Qxd4 Ra8 31.Ra1 c3 32.Qb4 Qc5 33.Qb3+ Kh8 34.Ra2 Ra4 35.Re2 Rxa3 36.Qd1 Ra8 0–1
We saw a few examples of that system here in Saint Louis. Here is the most impressive.
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Karjakin, Sergey (2773) — Aronian, Levon (2799) [C77]
Saint Louis Rapid (7.5), 16.08.2017
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a3 0–0 9.Nc3 Na5 10.Ba2 Be6 11.b4 Bxa2 12.Nxa2 Nb7 13.c4 bxc4 14.dxc4 a5 15.Bb2 Qb8 16.Nc3 axb4 17.axb4 Rxa1 18.Qxa1 Nd8
The knight is going to f4 to anchor a kingside attack.
19.Qa4 Ne6 20.Nd5 Nxd5 21.cxd5 Nf4 22.g3 Qc8! 23.Qd1
[23.gxf4 Qg4+ 24.Kh1 Qxf3+ 25.Kg1 Qg4+ 26.Kh1 Qe2 27.Qa1 f5! the attack is already very strong]
23…Nh3+ 24.Kg2 f5 25.exf5 Qxf5
Black is threatening 26…Qg4 (with the threat of 27…Rxf3 28.Qxf3 Nf4+ winning the queen) 27.Bc1 e4 28.Nd4 Rxf2+ 29.Kh1 h5 30.Qxg4 Rxf1+ 31.Kg2 Rg1+ 32.Kxh3 hxg4+ 33.Kxg4 Rxc1. Yes, I know, where are all these tactics coming from?
26.Bc1 g5 27.Qe2 g4 28.Nd2 Ng5
Intending …e5–e4 followed by …Nf3.
29.f3 gxf3+ 30.Nxf3 Qe4! 31.Qxe4 Nxe4 32.Bh6 Rf6 33.Bd2
[33.Bc1 Nc3 winning the crucial pawn on d5]
33…Rxf3! 34.Rxf3 Nxd2 35.Ra3 Kf7 36.Ra8 Nc4 37.Kf3 Nb6 38.Ra5 Kg6 39.Ke4 Nd7 40.Kd3 Kf5 41.Ra7 e4+ 42.Ke2 Bd8 43.Ra8 Bf6 44.Ra7 Nb6 45.Rxc7 Nxd5 46.Rb7 Nc3+ 47.Kd2 d5 48.b5 d4 49.b6 e3+ 50.Kd3 e2 51.Kd2 d3 52.Rf7 Ne4+ 53.Ke1 Ng5 [Followed by …Nf3+ and Black queens first] 0–1
You know of course that there are two players who wear Barong Tagalogs in the Grand Chess Tour. One is Wesley So, and the other is Levon Aronian. He will be marrying his fiancée Fil-Australian WIM Arianne Caoili in October. My best wishes to them and hope they will live happily ever after.
The big attraction for this tournament is Garry Kasparov, of course. On Tuesday we will look at some of his games. Will he be coming back any time soon? We will see.
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.
