Chess - The Scotsman 02/05/2012

IT’s just over a week before world champion Viswanathan Anand begins his title defence against challenger Boris Gelfand, with the opening ceremony on 10 May and the first game starting on 11 May.

Filling the void at the elite level till then, the Zurich Chess Club in Switzerland organised a fascinating six-game exhibition match between World No 2, Levon Aronian, and World No 3, Vladimr Kramnik, which ended 3-3 with one win each with four (reasonably) hard-fought draws.

Oddly, this is a record, with two players rated above 2800 in matchplay for the first time: Kramnik-Kasparov, Kramnik-Topalov, Anand-Kramnik and Anand-Topalov have all been 2800-plus players but never both at the same time of a given match. Both contestants were also playing on the back of big wins: Kramnik won the London Chess Classic in December, with Aronian taking the traditional top elite tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands in January.

The match could have gone to Kramnik, who sacrificed the exchange and was winning a difficult position in the sixth and final game, but the former champion erred in time trouble allowing Aronian to snatch a draw. The fourth game was drawn in under three hours of play so, as contractually agreed beforehand by the players, a rapid game (not rated or counted in the final score) was played for the entertainment of the spectators, which headed in one direction – a decisive win for Aronian, who can at least claim the bragging right to the match.

V Kramnik - L Aronian

Zurich Chess Challenge, (Rapid)

Ruy Lopez

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 d3 b5 6 Bb3 Bc5 7 c3 d6 8 Bg5 h6 9 Bh4 Bb6 10 Nbd2 Rb8 11 Qe2 a5 12 a4 b4 13 0–0 g5 14 Bg3 0–0 15 Nc4 Ba7 16 Nfd2 h5 17 h3 h4 18 Bh2 Kg7 19 Kh1 Rh8 20 d4 bxc3 21 bxc3 exd4 22 e5 dxc3 23 exf6+ Qxf6 24 f4 cxd2 25 fxg5 Qe6 26 Qd1 Rxb3! 27 Qxb3 Ba6 28 Qf3 Bxc4 29 Qxc6 Bd4 30 Bg1 Bxa1 31 Rxa1 Re8 32 g6 Qf6 33 Qxc4 Re1 34 Kh2 Rxa1 35 Bd4 Rh1+ 0–1