GM Levon Aronian received the FTX Street to Miami match on Sunday after a convincing second match victory vs. GM Wei Yi. The American-Armenian grandmaster received each of his video games with the black items.
Sunday’s match was a must-win for Wei, however the Chinese language GM by no means acquired severe possibilities. Because the match progressed, Aronian appeared to be enjoying higher chess by the day. Curiously, he received solely with the black items in each his semifinal and the ultimate.
Stepping away from the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Aronian was barely higher all through the primary recreation (a Nimzo-Indian as a substitute). It ought to have led to a draw, however with 16 seconds on the clock (vs. 37 for Aronian; the video games are 15+10), Wei made a deadly error:
Already in severe hazard, Wei went for the Trendy as Black within the subsequent recreation, however this did not actually work out. Actually, Aronian was profitable at a number of moments, however the Chinese language ultimately held the draw to maintain his hopes alive:
Sport three was a must-win for the Chinese language participant, who got here up with the flamboyant 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g4!?, a transfer he himself had confronted with the black items two months in the past. It led to fairly a playable place, however Aronian simply performed higher chess:Â
“He was enjoying extraordinarily sharp and he was shut,” stated Aronian. “Within the time scrambles he was making some errors but when not for that, it may have gone both means, after all.”
Aronian additionally famous his “regular enchancment” on this match: “I did not actually need to be within the high eight as a result of my play was very poor, however after that I believe I acquired myself collectively.”
“The end result was not good as we speak, however I believe the video games had been attention-grabbing,” stated Wei. “However he performed superb, and possibly I did not have any probability.”
The 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour’s fifth occasion, the FXT Street To Miami, occurred July 10-17, 2022 on chess24. The preliminary section was a 16-player speedy (15|10) round-robin. The highest eight gamers superior to the knockout section that consisted of 4 days of four-game speedy matches, which superior to blitz (5|3) and armageddon (White to have 5 minutes; Black, 4 with no increment) tiebreaks provided that a knockout match was tied. The prize fund was $150,000.
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