Rd. 8 - GM Levon Aronian vs. GM Viswanathan Anand

Written and analyzed by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

 

Aronian tried to put some pressure against Anand, but he ran into some deep opening preparation. The Indian player successfully neutralized White’s strong pawn center with some clever moves. Aronian sacrificed a pawn for some pressure on the b-file, taking advantage of an awkward knight on a5 for Anand, but Black had everything under control.