The Week in Chess

Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian reached the final of the Airthings Masters where the winner will qualify for the final of the Champions Chess Tour later in 2021. Radjabov won both his games against Daniil Dubov and Levon Aronian won game three of his mini-match against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave following two draws. These results meant that after day 1 wins neither winner could be caught.

Radjabov said afterwards: "This was kind of the strategy I had for the match, to play as boring as possible but you can thank Dubov for creating a lot of interesting games and making me show my best there." In the first game Dubov played the ultra-aggressive 5.g4!? followed by 5.g5!? in the Queen's Gambit - Radjabov reacted well and was better in the middle game except at one moment where 24.Rxb6! might well have turned the tables as only the move 24....Rfd7 holds equality. Dubov fought back later and actually forced an error 50...f5+? which is now equal with best play (50...Ne5 is best although 50...Kg6 also works). This endgame had to be played very quickly and 56.Kf3? was the decisive blunder (56.Kh3=). In game two Rajdabov admitted to thinking a draw would be enough but Dubov's Queen got into trouble in the middle of the board after 30....b5? (30...Ng4 is equal, even after the pseudo queen sacrifice 31.Qxh7+). Later on Dubov continued to play aggressively and once Radjabov secured his King it was his turn for the attack and Dubov had to resign.

Levon Aronian beat MVL in game three after two draws and this meant he couldn't be caught. Game one was a Gruenfeld where MVL was fairly comfortable throughout and this was drawn in 41 moves. Game 2 was a Berlin where MVL was pressing for a very long time without any really clear chances and the game was drawn in 65 moves. In game three Aronian got a great position right out of the opening, if not straight up winning, but MVL hung on for a very long time and definitely fought his way back at least a bit, MVL was however by this stage a pawn down and Aronian eventually converted this advantage in 133 moves.

"I knew this was a Masters. I knew I had to be ready, so I worked, I think, quite a lot, considering my standards of recent, when I mean a lot I mean 3 hours a day. I'll cherish any chance I'll get" - Aronian

"Certainly Levon is showing very high class these days, he's playing great chess like in good old times when he was playing this kind of calm slow chess and not making many mistakes, very simple chess and so on." - Radjabov

"Teimour is a tough competitor and he's very good at this format so I look forward to the match. I've played him before many times and the score is in my favour, but it is a final so everybody's ready." - Aronian

Final and 3rd-4th place playoff for the Masters start 2nd Jan 2pm GMT. Final Aronian-Radjabov, 3rd-4th MVL-Dubov.