Alexander Grischuk vs Levon Aronian, C84, Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game), Closed
2018 Chess Candidates Tournament, Round 12, Berlin, Germany, 03/24/2018
The Spanish Game, or the Ruy Lopez is one of the most theoretically known and most often played e4 openings. This game, played in rd.12 between Grischuk and Aronian, despite ending in a draw, was a very instructive example of how you should a approach a chess position. There is a saying which goes something like “better to have a bad plan than no plan at all”. And that’s very true. In this game both players have attempted to create plans and started executing them, whether it took a single move or a series of 10 moves.
The variation they played is a somewhat slow closed line in the Ruy Lopez, with white developing the rook to e1 early. Grischuk played a very rare move in the opening. He played Bd2 on move 9, where the by far most common move is c3, with more than a 1000 top level games. He was probably trying to get Aronian out of his opening preparation, and he probably succeeded, as he got a very favorable middlegame.
With this draw Grischuk is now only half a point away from the leaders, Karjakin and Caruana. The tie break system is ruthless though, and after match points, the second criteria is number of wins, which means that Karjakin is currently winning and he is in clear first since he has more wins than Fabiano despite having equal points.
One thing is certain, though, it’s going to be super exciting until round 14 finishes, and there is still no way of predicting the winner.
Standings after round 12:
Sergey Karjakin 7/12
Fabiano Caruana 7/12
Alexander Grischuk 6.5/12
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 6.5/12
Ding Liren 6.5/12
Vladimir Kramnik 5.5/12
Wesley So 5/12
Levon Aronian 4/12
*The Ruy Lopez or the Spanish Game occurs after
1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5
The closed lines are played after two most common moves; Bxc6 or the more popular Ba4, retreating. After this there are numerous possible lines, most commonly starting with 4…Nf6 5.0-0 Be7:
6.d4 (Centre)
6.Qe2 (Worrall
6.Re1 d6 (Averbakh)
6.Bxc6 (Delayed Exchange)
Etc….