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by Carlos Alberto Colodro
1/4/2021 – Teimour Radjabov secured first place at the Airthings Masters after scoring two points from three matches against Levon Aronian, having already won the first mini-match on Saturday. Meanwhile, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Daniil Dubov in a spirited match for third place. | Photo: Shamkir Chess
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Vachier-Lagrave takes third place
Having won the first set of the match, Teimour Radjabov only needed to score two points in Sunday’s mini-match to take home the $ 60,000 top prize of the Airthings Masters, and managed to do so in the first three matches of the day. Levon Aronian, who had shown an excellent performance in the previous days of action, came in second. Radjabov visibly tired spoke about his strategy in the final match:
I am completely exhausted. He was trying to get Levon into the lightning part of the game, honestly, after reviewing his preliminary games and then the knockout stage; he was playing almost perfect chess. […] Some might say I was playing some kind of dry chess, but my goal was to win the tournament, not to please anyone, to be honest.
Once the tie was agreed in the third game of the final, giving victory to the Radjabov tournament, the Azerbaijani was very moved by his achievement:
Many people I know seem to be calm, but in fact they are very emotional inside, but I just try not to show the emotions, that’s the point. But in the end I couldn’t, because I was very tense, and I finally saved the game.
With this victory, Radjabov qualified for the Grand Final of the tour to be played in September.
Click to enlarge
Radjabov 2: 1 Aronian
When asked about his performance after losing the final, Aronian noted that, among other things, he was happy about the fireworks seen in game 1 of Sunday’s mini-match, as the players entered a variation. sharp in the middle game:
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White played 21.e5 counting on the fact that after 21 … dxe3 He got 22.Qg6 +, with a dangerous attack. As the engines show, 21 … d3 was actually winning for Black, but finding this move in a quick game, and after eight days of tough encounters, is extremely difficult.
The game continued 22 … Kh8 23.Qxh6 + Ch7 24.Bd3 (threatening partner in one) exf2 + 25.Kf1 fxe1Q + 26.Rxf1 Bf5:
27.Bxf5 f6 (just move) 28.exf6 + Qf7, since the queen cannot abandon the defense of the h7 square:
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Like Radjabov, who had failed to find 21 … d3 previously, Aronian could not find the winning idea in this position. White needed to first exchange rooks with 29.Rxe8 + Rxe8 and then play the subtle 30.b3, preventing the black queen from checking on c4.
Black would have needed to play 30 … Rg8 to avoid 31.Ng5, to which White would have simply started pushing his pawn to h5, planning a lethal Bg6 at the end of the variation: Black is completely stagnant.
In the game, Aronian opted for the spectacular 29.Re6, and then 29 … Rxe6 30.Ng5 Rxf6 31.Nxf7 + Rxf7 32.Bxh7 Rxh7, the white queen began to ceaselessly check on the black monarch:
33.Qf6 + It was the first of ten checks that led players to accept a draw.
It was an intricate tactical battle, perhaps leaving Aronian thinking about the opportunities he had missed, as in Game 2 he was too ambitious and allowed his opponent to show excellent technical skills to get the full point.
A draw in game 3 gave Radjabov victory in the tournament.
Select an entry from the list to switch between games
Vachier-Lagrave 2½: 1½ Dubov
During the post-mortem interview, Vachier-Lagrave reiterated how difficult it had been for him to play this match, as he was not feeling very well at all times. When Kaja Snare asked the Frenchman what makes his games so entertaining for everyone, MVL confessed:
I think there were a lot of unnecessary mistakes on my part, which made the games at least entertaining; I’m not sure they are interesting, but definitely entertaining. (smile). […] I didn’t really feel like it was a good chess day.
In terms of decisive results, the match for third place was definitely eye-catching, with Vachier-Lagrave riding a comeback in Saturday’s first set after losing the first two games, and adding two more wins in the second mini-match to defeat. to the man. who eliminated Magnus Carlsen in the quarterfinals, the never-boring Daniil Dubov.
