Aronian happy to recover after loss against Gelfand

YEREVAN, March 28. /ARKA/. Defeating Vasyl Ivanchuk of Ukraine, Armenian chess grandmaster Levon Aronian told reporters he was happy to kind of recover after a loss against Boris Gelfand. 

Ivanchuk’s opening play, however, is still as unpredictable as ever, Aronian said.

“He’s known to play any kind of opening so I just decided not to prepare much, keep my head fresh,” he clarified at a news conference.

The official website of Candidates Tournament London 2013 reports the  Armenian felt he played “a bit imprecise” in the early middlegame, but after he found a double pawn sacrifice (going from one up to one down), the tables turned.

“After 26.g4 I have very good compensation. I was actually quite happy with my position,” said Aronian and added, “By then Ivanchuk was yet again in horrible time trouble: after his 27th move he had two and a half minutes left, and then his moves just didn’t get through anymore.”

 

“Let’s see, let’s see. Still many round to go!” the Armenian chess player added.

After ten rounds Carlsen is leading with 7 points. He’s followed by Aronian (6.5) and then Kramnik (6). Then there’s a gap with: Gelfand, Grischuk and Svidler who have 4.5 points. Ivanchuk and Radjabov are in last place with 3.5 points. On Thursday, March 28th at 14:00 GMT with the tenth round: Grischuk-Carlsen, Kramnik-Radjabov, Svidler-Aronian and Ivanchuk-Gelfand.

The tournament will be over on April 1.

The tournament winner will play with world champion Vishy Anan.

Levon Aronian was World Chess champion in 2005. He is a winner of three Olympiads (2006, 2008, 2012), super tournaments in Linares, Wijk aan Zee. He was a member of the gold-medal winning Armenian team at the World Team Chess Championship in 2011. -0-