Tiger on the Prowl

In Chess960 Simuls @ Mainz, I noted that the last chess960 simul at Mainz was given by GM Levon Aronian in 2006. He lost one game, gave up three draws, and won the rest. That one loss was to Mike Rosa, a member of the organizing staff at Mainz whom we have already seen in a post titled Chess Tiger.

The diagram shows the position in the game (SP800 BBRKQNRN) after the first five moves: 1.c4 e5 2.Nhg3 Nhg6 3.b3 f6 4.e3 b6 5.Qe2 Ne6. Although castling O-O-O is already possible on the first move, both players have declined to use that option.

Chess960 Simul, Mainz 2006
Rosa, Mike

Aronian, Levon
(After 5...Nf8-e6)

GM Aronian has used his first five moves to open lines for the Bishops on adjacent diagonals, to develop the Knight on h1 to its natural square, and to develop the Queen to e2. He probably intends to continue Ng3-f5, Nf1-g3, and O-O. Chess Tiger Rosa has used his five moves to open the line for one Bishop, to develop both Knights, and to stake a claim to the center with ...e5. The move ...f6 was necessary to prevent the loss of the e-Pawn after Bb1xg6.

Now Aronian played 6.Qh5, attacking the undefended h-Pawn and rendering ...O-O more difficult. Here is the full game score.

[Event "CCM6 - Chess960 Simultan"]
[Site "Mainz"]
[Date "2006.08.17"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Aronian, Levon"]
[Black "Rosa, Mike"]
[Result "0-1"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "bbrkqnrn/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BBRKQNRN w GCgc - 0 0"]

1.c4 e5 2.Nhg3 Nhg6 3.b3 f6 4.e3 b6 5.Qe2 Ne6 6.Qh5 Rh8 7.Nf5 Ne7 8.Qxe8+ Kxe8 9.N1g3 h5 10.Nxe7 Kxe7 11.d4 d6 12.h4 Kf7 13.d5 Nf8 14.f4 c6 15.fxe5 dxe5 16.e4 Bd6 17.Bd3 Ng6 18.O-O Nxh4 19.Be2 Ng6 20.Nf5 Bc5+ 21.Kh2 Nf4 22.Rc2 cxd5 23.exd5 h4 24.Bg4 Rce8 25.Bb2 g6 26.Nd4 exd4 27.Rxf4 Bd6 0-1

Rosa also managed to draw against Leko in the 2003 chess960 simul. If he plays later this year in the simul against GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, the Women's World Champion should know that she's up against a tiger.