Levon Aronian is an Armenian-American chess player who has been at the top of chess world since he was 17 years old. Now a veteran at 42, he has had to face the rising tide of young chess talent, whose development has been greatly accelerated by computers and the internet. This month he proved the tiger still has his teeth by defeating the world’s elite and winning the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam in Las Vegas.
Aronian defeated the world’s No. 1 and 2 players on his way to face American Hans Neinmann in the finals, who is a rising start and 20 years younger than Aronian. This week’s position is from their one decisive game in the finals. Aronian is white; Neinmann, black. Here, Aronian employed a tactic that gave him a superior material advantage, which he converted. With this hint in mind please try and find white’s best move.
White’s light-squared bishop is under attack and black’s b3 pawn is close to promoting. Aronian, however, observed that black’s bishop, knight and rook are all also on light-colored squares. This gives rise to the tactical move rook takes bishop on f7.
The point is that if black’s king takes white’s rook, white’s bishop takes black’s knight, forking the black king and rook (see next diagram).
From here, black does not have enough material to push its b3 pawn through to b1.
As a consequence of this hidden fork, Neinmann captured white’s bishop with his f5 pawn. This was followed by Aronian sliding his f7 rook over to b7, thwarting the b3 pawn’s advance (see next diagram).
Up the exchange with two rooks to black’s rook and knight, Aronian played precisely and won.
Freestyle chess involves randomizing the back rank from the starting position to avoid known opening lines and to encourage more creative play.
The lesson this week is with bishops on the board, it pays to note the color of the squares where the enemy’s major pieces rest.
Reach Eric Morrow at ericmorrowlaw@gmail.com or (505) 327-7121.
