The Agony of Modern Manners

Levon Grigori Aronian – Vassily Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk
7th Chess World Cup; match game 1; Tbilisi, September 15, 2017
English Opening A13

Strange things keep happening in the 7th Chess World Cup, and everyone may have his own ideas of what all this means. 1. c4 e6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 dxc4 4. Qa4+ c6 5. Qxc4 b5 6. Qc2 Bb7 7. Nf3 Nd7!? Ivanchuk deliberately takes his opponent on a sideline route, otherwise he would have played 7. ... Nf6 (8. d4 Nbd7). So I don’t understand why some commentators speak of Ivanchuk’s falling into a prepared trap by his opponent. He did everything on his own. 8. Nc3 Rc8 9. 0-0 a6!? Vassily Mykhaylovych takes another deliberate step off from his past experience: for 9. ... Ngf6 10. a4 a6 11. d3 Be7 12. e4 0-0 13. Be3 Ng4 14. Bf4 Ngf6 15. Rfd1 Qb6 16. a5 Qa7 17. e5 Nd5 see Ivanchuk – Grischuk, 4th Chess World Cup, Khanty-Mansiysk 2011. 10. d4 c5? Played after more than 40 minutes of thinking! The old try was 10. ... Ngf6, but after 11. Ne5 Qb6 12. Be3 c5 13. Nxd7 Nxd7 14. dxc5 Bxc5 15. Bxb7 Qxb7 16. Ne4 things turned out to be quite unpleasant for Black, Benidze – Aleksandrov, 11th International Chess Open, Nakhchivan 2011.

11. d5! exd5 12. Nh4 Ndf6? This is actually the first and only novelty, and certainly it is not an improvement on 12. ... Ngf6; then Ukrainian Grandmaster Mikhail Vladimirovich Golubev gives 13. Rd1 (13. Bg5 Qb6 14. e4 d4 15. Nd5 Bxd5 16. exd5 h6 17. Rfe1+ Kd8 18. Bd2 c4 is quite unclear, Nguyễn Thị Thanh An – Gvetadze, 1st World Women’s Team Chess Championship, Yekaterinburg 2007) 13. ... Qb6 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 15. Bxd5 Bxd5 16. Rxd5 Qe6 17. Rd3, which is obviously more favourable to White (for instance: 17. ... Ne5 18. Re3 c4 19. f4!), but it also was by far the most lesser evil. 13. Rd1. Here is no good news for Ivanchuk: Aronian has still 1 hour and 12 minutes left (as well as an imposing position), whilst he remains with only 12 minutes. The rest is not hard to foresee: 13. ... g6 14. Nxd5 Nxd5 15. e4 Bg7 16. exd5 Nf6 17. Qe2+ Kf8 18. a4! b4 19. Be3 Qd6 20. Rac1 Nd7 21. Nf3 h6 22. Nd2 Kg8 23. Ne4 Qf8 24. d6 1 : 0.