Game Of the Week: GM Evgeny Tomashevsky vs. GM Levon Aronian

Opening: E10: Blumenfeld Gambit

Player(s): Thomashevsky, Aronian

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The two game matches of the FIDE World Cup provide excitement for the fans but a tremendous amount of tension for the players.

A loss in the first game produces an immediate must-win situation. Yet the pressure for the most part, switches to the player with the most to lose. This year we have seen players struggle to close out opponents, even with the White pieces on top of draw odds. For instance Fressinet was very fortunate Christiansen did not even the score in the first round. Giri let Granda slip away, as did Dreev with Andreikin. Everyone wants to draw from a position of relative strength, but how far should one take this strategy? Svidler got the draw he needed from Radjabov, but he sacrificed a rook to do it. When Levon Aronian unexpectedly lost with white to Evgeny Tomashevsky in round three, he needed to provoke his opponent to veer from his usual solidity. Tomashevsky regretted allowing the game to degenerate into a big mess, but could nothing but try to fight his way out of it. Let's see how it all went down.

		White:	GM Tomashevsky
		Black:	GM Aronian
		Description:	World Cup 2013
		ECO:	ECO: E10 Queen's pawn
		Run Time:	00:26:33

Teacher's library (453) E10 Thomashevsky Aronian game analysis