[Event "2022 Olympiad"] [Site "Chennai, India"] [Date "2022.07.29"] [Round "1.2"] [White "Silva, David"] [Black "Aronian, Levon"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [WhiteElo "2315"] [BlackElo "2775"] [Annotator "Solon, Nate"] [Variant "Standard"] [ECO "B51"] [Opening "Sicilian Defense: Moscow Variation"] [Source "https://lichess.org/study/cS8lSqW7/4sur6HjU"] [Orientation "white"] { [%evp 0,82,29,25,38,51,66,51,66,5,5,-24,16,16,16,13,13,13,15,19,13,19,19,4,5, -23,1,4,25,11,23,-20,14,13,7,10,20,33,37,45,52,54,62,50,65,58,71,80,86,68,61, 76,123,125,136,76,107,99,100,88,81,75,88,85,92,97,94,89,89,81,77,73,73,73,91, 103,140,120,115,120,120,133,126,105,146] } 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Nd7 4. c3 Nf6 5. Bd3 { This voluntary bishop retreat looks odd, but has been seen fairly often at the top level. The bishop would have been kicked away by ...a7-a6 sooner or later anyway. } 5... Ne5 { Most of the time the top players compete in closed tournaments against each other, so it's interesting to see how they adjust against lower rated players. Often they look to imbalance the position as early as possible. In this case Aronian invites his opponent to give him doubled pawns. In exchange he'll get a Maroczy Bind-like clamp in the center and pressure down the d-file. } 6. Nxe5 dxe5 7. Bc2 g6 8. d3 Bg7 9. Be3 b6 10. O-O O-O 11. h3 Ba6 12. Re1 Qd6 13. Na3 Rad8 { So far Aronian's strategy is working well. White has played normal-looking moves, but they don't add up to any particular plan. Meanwhile all of Black's moves are geared towards pressuring the d-pawn on the open file. Black's position is already better. } 14. Qf3 Nh5 15. Rad1 Bb7 16. Bb3 Kh8 17. Qg4 Qc6?! { The queen eyes a mate on g2, but this allows a skewer. } (17... Qc7 { would have kept things simpler. Black can think about a knight incursion with Nf4, or preparing the f5 pawn break. }) 18. Bd5 Rxd5!? { It's unclear if this exchange sacrifice was part of the plan when playing 17...Qc6. It's not a bad sacrifice - Black gets the bishop pair and a mobile pawn mass on the kingside - but it seems like a big risk when Black had a nice position without giving up the exchange. } 19. exd5 Qxd5 20. f3 Qc6? { It's rarely a good sign if you follow up a sacrifice with a retreat. } (20... f5 { was the natural follow-up, but maybe Aronian was worried about } 21. Qa4 { If Black's queenside pawns start dropping he'll have to go all-in on the kingside attack. It might still work, but evidently Aronian didn't like the idea of burning his bridges so soon. }) 21. Qc4 Qd6 22. Qa4 Qb8 { Black's queen pirouette over the last four moves with the queen is none too convincing. Clearly something went wrong in Aronian's calculations and he had to scramble. } 23. b4 cxb4 24. Qxb4 Re8 25. c4 Nf6? { Another curious retreat. If there was one Black piece doing good work it was this knight, eyeing the weak dark squares on White's queenside. Black could have tried to increase the pressure on the dark squares with ...Bg7-f6-h4. It's not enough really, but at least it could have made White sweat. With the move played, Aronian basically admits he has no compensation for the exchange and settles in for a grim defense. } 26. Nb5 Nd7 27. a4 a5 28. Qb1 Kg8 29. Bf2 Bc6 30. Qb3 Nc5 31. Bxc5? { Understandably, in a great position against a higher-rated opponent, Silva wanted to simplify matters. Nonetheless, with all of White's pawns on light squares, it would have been better to hold on to this bishop to preserve some control over the dark squares. } 31... bxc5 32. Qc2 Bd7 33. Rb1 Rc8 34. Qd2 Qb6 35. Rb3 Qd8 36. Reb1 Rb8 37. Qe3 e4!? { Aronian decides to jettison a pawn to open up the dark-squared bishop. } (37... Rc8) 38. Qxe4 e6 39. Qf4 Be8 40. Kh1 h5 41. Qd6 Bf8 { Here Aronian went for the last refuge of a higher-rated player in a losing position: the draw offer. And Silva accepted! Converting this position to a win is far from trivial, but with the queens coming off the board, it seems like White could have pressed on with no risk. Such things are easier to say from the sidelines though. } 1/2-1/2