Kramnik-Aronian 36th move tactics (Annotations)

also available here
chessbase : Kramnik-Aronian.html

round 7 FIDE Candidates annotated : Aronian-Caruana 2018 0-1

also available here
chessbase : Aronian-Caruana-annotated.html

Aronian-Grischuk round 5 Berlin 2018 1/2 1/2 annotated

Aronian Kramnik 2018 Chess Analysis

Replay game here
http://aronian-kramnik_2018-annotated.html

after 8..Rg8

after ..f5

after ..Qe2

Amber Chess 2011 (Monaco)

Official site: Amber Chess Tournament here

And the winner of the 2011 edition is Levon Aronian. Congratulations to the armenian GM who came first ahead of top players such as Anand, Kramnik, Carlsen ...

Amber Chess 2009: Aronian wins in Nice !

Levon Aronian, Nice winner Amber Edition 2009

By drawing his two games against Topalov today, Levon Aronian won the combined 2009 Amber tournament. This is the second win in a row for the armenian grand master, as he won last year's combined Amber event as well.

Levon Aronian overall winner in Amber 2009 !

The tournament was incredibly strong this year, with the participation of Anand,Kramnik,Topalov,Carlsen,Morozevich,Karjakin and many other top GMs.

I think that Aronian's success lies in very strong middle-game skills both from a tactical and strategic standpoint, the ability to save or turn around compromised positions ( see rapid game against Carlsen for instance), finding counter-chances and making superb practical decisions especially in complex positions, and excellent nerves & self-control in time-trouble.

A great example today was his move 32..Re8! in the blindfold Topalov-Aronian.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1541024


Finally Aronian has developed a well-thought out opening repertoire with 1d4 as main weapon for White (with also 1.c4 and 1Nf3 as alternatives). As Black, he can play 1..e5 or 1..c6 against 1.e4, and favors the Slav against 1.d4.

Kramnik, Anand and Carlsen were also in the running for first place during the tournament.
This year's event produced numerous exciting battles, including the blindfold tournament, which showed that top grandmasters can play fast and accurately without a chessboard, which I find personally very impressive. Only a few blindfold games were decided by blunders, with the vast majority displaying quality chess !



Official Website and Final Standings :
http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Excellent coverage also at :

http://www.chessvibes.com/ (with on-site videos)

http://www.chessgames.com/

http://www.theweekinchess.com/

Toward the end, Europe-Echecs provided on-site coverage as well:
http://www.europe-echecs.com/

Top 10 Photos from Amber Chess 2009 ( March 17, 2009)

Peter and Sofia Leko

Aronian and Anand (Their two games were drawn today)

Levon Aronian, happy with his play so far




http://www.amberchess2009.com/ for the official site.

Amber Round 2 (Aronian-Leko, Rapid)

Today's masterpiece was created by Aronian.

Part I-White to play for the attack

Aronian-Leko Rapid 2

Part II-White to play and win

Aronian-Leko 1-0 Rapid (2)

-------------------

Solution Part II

White played 26 Rd1! Rf8 27 Rd5! Rf6 ?! 28 Qh7+ Kf8 29 Rg5! with idea Rg8#. Spectacular finish !

But 27..Nc6 was a marginally better defense, to stop the threat 28 Re5+. White would have to find 28 Qh7+ Kf6 29 Ne4+! Ke6 30 Rd6+ or 28..Ke6 28 Qe4+ Kf6 29 Rf5+!

http://www.amberchess2009.com/

You can find the pgn files and reports at the following websites as well:

http://www.theweekinchess.com/

http://www.chessvibes.com/

Top Grandmasters 2008 games

This blog is about taking a closer look at the middle-game in chess. Top level chess provides lots of material to re-play, analyze and be inspired by.

From the top 10 chess players in the world, I have decided to select 4 Grandmasters with a collection of their 2008 games ( wins or losses, no draws) as of June 19, 2008. Around a hundred games are featured.

Here are the links with replayable games on a chessboard:

Anand:
http://games.top10chess.com/anandgames.htm

Aronian:
http://games.top10chess.com/aroniangames.htm

Carlsen:
http://games.top10chess.com/carlsengames.htm

Morozevich:
http://games.top10chess.com/morozevichgames.htm




Please drop a comment if you would like another player to be featured in the list, or if you have a comment on the presented collections. For example, if a particular game or position stands out, it could be analyzed in a separate post.