Maxime Vechier-Lagrave vs Levon Aronian, Closed Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game), C88, Anti-Marshall
2018 Grenke Chess Classic, Round 5, Baden Baden, 04/05/18
Maxime Vechier-Lagrave was sharing first place with Caruana and Vitiugov before round 5 with three points from the first four rounds. He had a great start to the tournament. In this game he faced Levon Aronian, who was at 2.5/4.
They played a Closed Ruy Lopez. MVL declined Aronian’s specialty – the Marshall Attack by playing a4 instead of c3 on move 8, and they entered a well known aggressive line in the Closed Spanish.
Maxime found a very nice tactic, temporarily sacrificing a piece, which could have been very dangerous had Levon not reacted perfectly and found the best continuation. Unfortunately for Maxime it was either win or draw after he sacrificed his knight (which he must have known), and since Aronian played well they drew. They entered a bishops endgame which gave no prospects to either side.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 (Ruy Lopez) a6 (Morphy Defense) 4. Ba4 Nf6
5. O-O Be7 (Closed) 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. a4 (Anti-Marshall) b4
9. a5 d6 10. d3 Be6 11. Bxe6 fxe6 12. h3 Qb8
13. c3 Qb5 14. c4 Qb7 15. Nbd2 Nd7 16. Nb3 Nd8
17. d4 exd4 18. Nbxd4 c5 19. Nxe6 Nxe6 20. Qd5 Qxd5
21. exd5 Rxf3 22. gxf3 Ne5 23. Rxe5 dxe5 24. dxe6 Rd8
25. Be3 g5 26. Kf1 Kg7 27. Ke2 Kf6 28. Rd1 Rxd1
29. Kxd1 Kxe6 30. Kc2 Kf5 31. Kd3 Bd6 32. b3 Be7
33. Bc1 Bd6 34. Be3 Be7 35. Bc1 Bd6 36. Be3 ½ ½
*The Marshall Attack would continue after 8.c3 by white, and
8…d5 (this move signifies the variation)
9. exd5 Nxd5
10. Nxe5 Nxe5
11. Rxe5
Black plays d5 to exploit white’s lack of development on the queenside because of the move c3 which takes away the square for the b1 knight. After the most common variation, black ends up sacrificing his e pawn for the initiative. The position is equal but very imbalanced. Levon Aronian is considered to be world’s leading expert on the Marshall, which is why many players, including MVL, tend to avoid playing 8.c3 against him.