Aronian, L (2759) – Shirov, A (2699) [D20]
WCh Candidates Finals Elista RUS (1), 06.05.2007
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 e5 4.Nf3 exd4 5.Bxc4 Nc6 6.0-0 Be6 7.Bxe6 fxe6 8.Qb3 Qd7 9.Qxb7 Rb8 10.Qa6 Nf6 11.Nbd2 Bd6 12.b3 0-0 13.Bb2 Bf4 14.g3 Bh6 15.Ba3 (I do not have the game moves from 15… to 28 I will fill it in later. The diagram below is after 28…Nxa2)
29.Rb3 Nc1 30.Rb1 Ne2+ 31.Kf2 +- (This is winning for White if played correctly and Aronian is very good in endgames.)
31…e5 32.Ra1 Rd5 33.Rxa7 Rxc5 34.Rxd3 Nd4 35.Rd2 h6 36.f4 Nb5 37.Ra8+ Kh7 38.f5 Nd4 39.g4 Rc3 40.Rb2 h5 41.Rbb8 +- (Black’s position is completely hopeless. 40…h5 made it even worse. He basically walked into a mate or losing more material. He may have overlooked h4 for White. Perhaps 40…Nb5 is a little better. ) 1-0
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GM Aronian (2759) – GM Shirov (2699) [D20]
FIDE candidates Matches Elista, Kalmykia Russia, 06.06.2007
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 e5 4.Nf3 exd4 5.Bxc4 Nc6 6.0-0 Be6 7.Bxe6 fxe6 8.Qb3 Qd7 9.Qxb7 Rb8 10.Qa6 Nf6 11.Nbd2 Bd6 12.b3 0-0 13.Bb2 Bf4 14.g3 Bh6 15.Ba3 Nxe4 16.Bxf8 Nxd2 17.Nxd2 Bxd2 18.Ba3 Qd5 19.Qc4 Qxc4 20.bxc4 Ne5 21.Rab1 Rd8 22.c5 Nc4 23.Bc1 d3 24.Rb7 c6 25.Bxd2 Nxd2 26.Rd1 Ne4 27.f3 Nc3 28.Rd2 Nxa2 29.Rb3 Nc1 30.Rb1 Ne2+ 31.Kf2 e5 32.Ra1 Rd5 33.Rxa7 Rxc5 34.Rxd3 Nd4 35.Rd2 h6 36.f4 Nb5 37.Ra8+ Kh7 38.f5 Nd4 39.g4 Rc3 40.Rb2 h5 41.Rbb8 White wins 1-0
Levon made it through!
Suicidal Shirov; Aronian had just pick up the point there.
But interesting to see fireworks right from the start. The other results were more or less as expected so far.