London Candidates 2013: 3 Rounds to Go. Aronian vs Kramnik is Match of the Day

Round 12 paired first and second runner-up of this tournament, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik. Their match is match of the day. Kramnik is playing with Black pieces and according to his yesterday's statement - "Safety the first".
Carlsen, on the contrary, plays with White pieces against one of the "weakest" player in this tournament. There is no doubt that Ivanchuk, who is one of very few players in the world considered by Garry Kasparov as a genius, is not in good shape. He lost too many games on time... Is he able to hold his ground against the world number one?

The situation and current standing  is as follows:

Table/starting rank after round 11

SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pts	Res.	Vict	Rank
1	GM	Aronian Levon	2809	ARM		1 0	1 1	½ 0	½	½	1	½ ½	6½	0	4	3
2	GM	Gelfand Boris	2740	ISR	0 1		½ ½	½	½	½	½ 1	0 0	5	½	2	5
3	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2757	UKR	0 0	½ ½		½	½	½ 0	0 1	½	4	0	1	7
4	GM	Svidler Peter	2747	RUS	½ 1	½	½		½ 0	½ ½	1 ½	0	5½	0	2	4
5	GM	Kramnik Vladimir	2810	RUS	½	½	½	½ 1		½ 1	½ 1	½ ½	7	0	3	2
6	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2764	RUS	½	½	½ 1	½ ½	½ 0		½	0 ½	5	½	1	6
7	GM	Radjabov Teimour	2793	AZE	0	½ 0	1 0	0 ½	½ 0	½		½	3½	0	1	8
8	GM	Carlsen Magnus	2872	NOR	½ ½	1 1	½	1	½ ½	1 ½	½		7½	0	4	1

Kramnik vs Aronian 1-0

An amazing game between two runner-ups started as a Semi-Tarrasch defence and we had on the board very quickly "isolani-type-position".
In his move 10 Kramnik came up with a surprise playing the "anti-positional" move 10...f5!?

Aronian vs Kramnik, after 10...f5

By this move Kramnik obviously shocked most of chess players around the world. 
GM Alexei Korotylev, making his on-line commentaries for ChessPro.ru, wrote: "Well, what on the earth my friends we  have witnessed over here - Kramnik makes strategically suspicious move, the main advantage of which is that this is the first line offer made by Houdini. Does 10... f5 any other advantages (and disadvantages which are on the e-file)? Apparently, Black hopes that putting the bishop on f6 will cover all his weaknesses and also will put a pressure on isolated  d-pawn in the center."
So the only guy who was not impressed by this move was Houdini 3 suggesting this move as its first line solution!
And on the next diagram we can see perhaps the critical position of the whole game

Aronian vs Kramnik, after 20.fxe3

In this position, the correct continuation was 20...Rac8 meeting the most aggressive move 21.Rh5 by 21...Nxd4! and if 22.exd4 then 22...Bxf3 23.gxf3 Rxc2 and Black is winning.

Instead of that, Kramnik played weak move 20...Ne7? which should have been followed by 21.Rh5! with the slight advantage for White. However, Aronian from some reason played 21.e4.

Aronian vs Kramnik, after 41.g4

The position means that game was simplified and very likely will be a draw. 
The major problem of Black's position is that a1-square colour doesn't match the Black light-squared Bishop. So despite that Black is able to take c7-pawn, to exchange one pawn on the kingside and to take the h-pawn then after White plays in certain point c4 and put his King in the a1-corner we will get a theoretical draw.
However, both players had different views on how to play this position and game reached following position:

Aronian vs Kramnik, after 49...Kf5

The correct continuation was 50.h6! and the game is draw! However, under the pressure everything seems to be different. Aronian was perhaps tired a bit, whatever.... He played 50.g6?? and the game was over... Perhaps, this was the biggest blunder in this tournament! What an epic game!

And here is the game in full.





Gelfand vs Svidler ½-½

Gelfand vs Svidler, final position

Radjabov vs Grischuk ½-½





Carlsen vs Ivanchuk 0-1

Magnus Carlsen, playing with White against Vassily Ivanchuk, did not play his best and Vassily managed to win! Taimanov Sicilian was played.

Carlsen vs Ivanchuk, after 44.Rc4+

The game went into the rooks and pawns endings where Ivanchuk was pawn up, Carlsen suffered a lot and then in final time scrabble Ivanchuk manage to win this technical ending.
Magnificent job!




Well, what a round! Carlsen and Aronian lost  which shuffled the standings a bit.

Standings after round 12
1	Kramnik Vladimir	8
2	Carlsen Magnus	7½
3	Aronian Levon	6½
4	Svidler Peter	6
5-6	Gelfand Boris	5½
5-6	Grischuk Alexander	5½
7	Ivanchuk Vassily	5
8	Radjabov Teimour	4

Tomorrow is a rest day and we can look forward to round 13!