Lev Aronian defeated fellow-GM and Frenchman Etinne Bacrot in the second game of their Mini-match in a long grind and thus entered the finals of the World Chess Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
Others to advance to the next stage were the Israeli GM Boris Gelfand and the Russian GM Alexey Dreev. On yet another day, which produced just two decisive games out of the total eight, five matches will proceed to the tie-breaks.
Aronian gained a small edge with White pieces in a Queenless Middlegame, which arose from a popular variation of the Slav Defence.
By the 16th move, he had gained a Pawn in Rooks and opposite coloured Bishops Endgame. Bacrot managed to exchange all the Rooks and entered a level looking Bishops Ending, and just when the spectators and commentators where doubting Aronian's chances of a victory, the game suddenly ended on the 50th move, when Aronian clearly demonstrated the advantage of the extra Pawn to win the game.
Thus, Aronian moves into the finals of the World Cup, where he will meet the winner of the match between Ponomariov and Grischuk.
Boris Gelfand clearly stamped his superiority over the much elder Gurevich when he defeated him from the White side of an Old Indian Defence, thus sweeping the match 2-0 in his favour.
Gurevich's rare opening choice was probably due to the Belgian GM's desire to win with Black pieces. In a complex middlegame, Gelfand slowly tightened the screws all over the board and won a Pawn with a tactical shot on the 29th move and the game on the 64th move.
More from rediff