Chess on the Rock

The Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian has won first prize of £25,000 in the important Tradewise Masters which has just finished in Gibraltar. Britain’s Mickey Adams also shared first place, but due to the exigencies of the tie-breaking system it was Aronian who progressed to the play-off, where he defeated the leading French representative Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
 
Here are some extracts from an event which has consistently been voted the world’s best open competition.
 
Aronian-Hoolt: Gibraltar Masters 2018
(See diagram 1)
 
Black is a pawn up but White has tremendously active rooks and a juicy square on e5 for the knight. 34 Nf6! This proves remarkably awkward. Black cannot capture as 34 … gxf6 35 Qxf6+ Rg7 36 Rd7 Reg8 37 Rcc7 wins. 34 … Rc8 35 Rcd1 White now has numerous threats including the beautiful 36 Qg6! 35 … Rf7 36 Nd7 36 Nxh7 was also very strong as 36 … Kxh7 37 Rd7 Rcf8 38 Rxf7 Rxf7 39 Rd8 wins.