Levon Aronian was dead lost in the 2nd and 3rd games on Day 1 of the FTX Road to Miami final but managed to survive before going on to win the 4th game to take the lead against Wei Yi. The Chinese star now has to win on demand on Day 2 of the final to force blitz tiebreaks.
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On paper you might think that Day 1 of the FTX Road to Miami final saw a tight match with Levon edging victory at the end.
In fact it was wild from the very start, with Levon missing a great chance early on in the 1st game. 18.Nxe6! would have been powerful.
There are many lines after 18…fxe6 19.Bxe6+, but White is doing well in all of them. For example, after 19…Kh8 20.d5! Nb4 21.Bxf6 Bxf6 22.a3 the knight has run out of squares and Black needs to give back material.
18.dxc5!? was much less forceful, but it’s hard to criticise Levon too much as he nevertheless went on to build up a close to winning advantage. He later commented:
I think in the first game it was more or less going my way and it was of course a pity that in the endgame I didn’t realise that I need to exchange some pawns.
Perhaps the moment he was thinking of came after 32…g4.
The computer gives 33.e4! as the key move, while after 33.Kg2 Be2! the white king was caged in.
Wei Yi began to find some great resources, until towards the end he was the player who rejected a draw and decided to play on, despite getting very low on time.
It was a thriller, but eventually fizzled out into a 79-move draw.
In hindsight that would be the quietest game of Day 1 of the final. Game 2 saw Levon going for an awkward-looking queen retreat.
The game seemed to be heading towards a draw, however, until suddenly, after 41…Kd5 instead of 41…Kd7, the computer announced that Wei Yi was winning. He correctly played 42.Kf4!
It was balanced on a knife-edge, however, with Wei Yi letting the win slip on move 48.
There was no time to spare, with 48.Kg5! and heading towards the f7-pawn essential, while the g4-pawn could be given up. Instead after 48.Bb4 Bg6! Black was suddenly in control again. Levon had survived a scare.
It wasn’t possible to say he’d learned his lesson, however, since he commented:
The 2nd and 3rd games were of course disasters for me, because I got into a lot of trouble. The 2nd game of course it was basically my doing, I overpushed at some point, but the third game I was very naïve. I felt my opponent wouldn’t have analysed this stuff before the game and I was about to pay the price, but all in all I think I was maybe not playing well but being resourceful. At least this was a good thing.
Wei Yi had come prepared with an improvement over what he played in Game 1 of the final.
That wasn’t all he’d prepared, however, since just when Peter Leko was explaining that 18.Nxd4? would be a blunder that runs into 18…Ng4 — Peter had analysed it all back in 2016! — Levon went for it, and the punishment was immediate!
The knight on d4 was soon in a lethal pin and Wei Yi was doing everything right, but Levon put up great resistance.
Here it seems exchanging queens, though not what Black wanted, was the best option, while after 27…Qg6!? Levon was very close to equalising.
He didn’t manage, however, and once more got into huge difficulty, but the saving grace was that Wei Yi was very low on time.
Here 42…Qd2!, threatening both checkmate on a5 and Qxa2, was a winning move, since after 43.Ka3 Black has 43…b5! to break through White’s defences — e.g. 44.Rxd3 is met by 44…b4+! 45.Ka4 Qxa2+, while if the d-pawn survives it can become a monster.
Instead Wei Yi gave his king an escape route with 42…h6, but after 43.Qd7 his 43…Rxc4+ was no more than a way to force a draw.
As so often in chess and other sports, missed wins came back to haunt Wei Yi. In the 4th and final game of the day Levon got everything he wanted out of the opening.
I’ve analysed this opening. It’s kind of risky for Black, because you’re a pawn down and White has good pieces, but I like the two bishops! I feel that playing something risky and having some chances at some point is what I want to do.
When he played 18…Qf4! it was clear he’d taken over.
Wei Yi exchanged queens, but Black’s initiative only grew, with tactical details working in Levon’s favour. At first glance 30.f4 looks like trouble for Black…
…but in fact 30…Rh4! works perfectly, with 31.Kg3 met by 31…Bxf4+.
We’d seen missed wins in the previous two games, but Levon was ruthless and clinched victory in 43 moves.
White’s problem in the final position is not so much being down a pawn, with the a-pawn also ready to race down the board, but that Kc7 is going to win the b8-knight, since Nd7 runs into Kd8, attacking both White’s minor pieces.
That victory means that Levon Aronian is now only a draw in Sunday’s 2nd 4-game match away from clinching victory in the FTX Road to Miami.
It’s anything but over for Wei Yi, however, since if he wins the second match the title will be decided in blitz tiebreaks.
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