Linares standings after Round 4
1-2. GM Levon Aronian ARM 2750 3.0 points
GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2733
3. GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2791 2.5 points
4-5. GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2776 2.0 points
GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2779
6. GM Leinier Dominguez CUB 2717 1.5 points
7-8. GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2761 1.0 point
GM Wang Yue CHN 2739
Official website: http://www.ajedrez.ciudaddelinares.es/index.htm
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Hi Susan,
You have played against Anand before, why is he struggling against Aronian? Is it the d4 system that seems to bother him? Did he ever play d4 against you?
-MG42
I know I wasn’t asked … but I think Anand’s loss(es) against Aronian have little to do with the 1.d4 opening. First, in Linares 2009 he was better if not winning after the opening. Second, his previous losses against Aronian with white were
1)in the Ruy Lopez Marshall (black’s attack crushing through, Anand overlooked a fairly simple tactics but maybe he was lost anyway at that point)
2) in the Scotch game (Anand lost track in a double rook ending).
I think Aronian is just a tough and tricky opponent … to everyone, Anand is no exception.
About the last question: He may have played 1.d4 at a few earlier occasions, but was an (almost?) exclusive 1.e4 player throughout most of his career. He adapted 1.d4 for his match against Kramnik (to avoid the Petroff!?), now we know that this was not specifically or only for the WCh match.
Thomas, thank you for the reply. So it seems like Aronian is an upcoming star.
Good to see Anand expand his opening choices to d4 though. It will make him a much tougher opponent. I would like to see him employ a few surprise openings (e4-d5 type stuff) to keep other people off balance.