Garden Without Flowers

Levon Grigori Aronian – 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén)
7th Chess World Cup; match game 1; Tbilisi, September 23, 2017
English Opening A18

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e6 3. e4 d5 4. cxd5 exd5 5. e5 Ne4 6. Nf3 Bf5 7. Be2 d4!? 8. Nxe4 Bxe4 9. Bc4!? Shimanov’s move, instead of 9. d3 Bd5 10. 0-0 Nc6 11. a3 a5 12. Bf4 a4 13. Nd2 Be7 14. Bg3 0-0 15. Rc1 which gave White a minimal edge, Topalov – Nakamura, Grand Chess Tour Blitz Paris 2017, Paris 2017. 9. ... Bd5!? 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén)’s novelty – but not a substantial one. For 9. ... Be7 10. 0-0 Nc6 11. Re1 Bd5 12. Qb3 Bxc4 13. Qxc4 Qd7 14. d3 Qe6 take a look at Shimanov – 居文君 (Jū Wénjūn), 1st Fall Chess Classic, Saint Louis 2017. 10. Qb3 Bxc4 11. Qxc4 Nc6 12. 0-0 Qd7 13. d3 Qe6 14. Qxe6+ fxe6 15. Ng5 Kd7 16. f4 Be7 17. Ne4 Raf8 18. Bd2 g5 19. g3 Rhg8 20. Kh1 gxf4 21. gxf4 Rg6 22. Rac1 Rfg8 23. a3 a5 24. Rf3 b6 25. Rh3 R8g7 26. Ng3 Nd8 27. b4! axb4 28. axb4 b5!

29. Kg2. Aronian felt not ready to dare the most critical and consistent 29. f5! exf5 30. Nxf5 Rf7 31. Nxd4 as he apparently saw no convincing way to capitalize his material advantage after 31. ... Ne6! 32. Nxb5 (32. Nxe6? Kxe6 33. d4 Kd5 couldn’t worry Black anymore) 32. ... Rg4! with powerful dynamic compensation for the two Pawns. Whatever it was, it would have been a hard fight! 29. ... Nc6 30. Rb1 Rf7 31. Rh5 Rg8 32. Rh6 Bf8 33. Rh3 Be7 34. Rh6 Bf8 35. Rh3 Be7 ½ : ½.