Levon Aronian won the 76th Tata Steel Chess Tournament! He beat Leinier Dominguez in the penultimate round, bringing his total to an impressive 8.0/10. In a Ruy Lopez, the Armenian felt that Dominguez’ 17.Rfe1 was not the best move, making black’s position “slightly more preferable.” The Cuban committed several more inaccuracies, desperately trying to squeeze out of his predicament. Matters only got worse, however, and when Aronian obtained a menacing passed b-pawn, it was just a matter of time before Dominguez had no other option but to admit defeat.
Anish Giri and Sergey Karjakin are the main contenders for second place, both with a 6.0/10 score. In their game, Giri tried a long-forgotten idea in the Catalan. He said that “if I’m able to stop his breakthrough with b5 I should be slightly better.” When he missed the sly (see diagram) 17.Ne5, with the idea of 17. …Bxg2 18.c4!, the Dutchman was unable to prevent the breakthrough with which Karjakin maintained the balance. Giri saw it coming and “just tried to make a draw.” He succeeded in doing so after 32 moves.
Hikaru Nakamura managed to win his game, defeating Richard Rapport. Rapport once again ventured onto uncharted opening territory, creating a highly interesting position. Nakamura said that “had he (Rapport) calmed down he should have been a bit better but he continued to play very creatively.” Rapport went for an all-out attack against the black king with (see diagram) 19.Qf3, instead of taking the knight. The American happily accepted the material and when he fended off the assault, there was nothing Rapport could do to avoid losing the battle.
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Nakamura crushed Rapport like a bug.
This was a good game to see which player would be in 2nd to the last place.
If Aronian can win the candidates, it could be a fantastic championship.