Aronian - Karjakin: Rules are for Fools

True masters of their craft regularly ignore rules and recommendations that act as clutches for the rest of us. Consider the following position from a blitz game between Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin at the 2015 Zurich Chess Challenge after 19. ... Rb8

White (Aronian) to move after Karyakin's 19. ... Rb8

Aronian played 19. Kf2 and eventually won the game after both players put their kingside pawns in motion.

I'm wondering though... in the diagram above... Why didn't Aronian just take the bishop on b7? 

It's a well-known rule of thumb that in endgames with pawns on both wings, the bishop is superior to the knight. In the diagram above, there may even be the chance to lock Black's queenside pawns in place on light-colored squares, which would make White's bishop even stronger.  

Obviously, Aronian is aware of all this, so he must have had his reasons to keep his knight (and Karyakin's bishop) on the board.

Would this not be a textbook example of a position where the Bishop is stronger than the Knight?

Was he afraid that the afraid that the advantage wouldn't be enough to win the position?
Did he see "ghosts" or overlooked something? After all, this was a blitz game. Or is the evaluation of the diagram above different at a super-GM level compared to mere amateur play?

Aronian won the game regardless. However, Karyakin "helped" by pushing for a win himself. It seems to me that if Black chooses to play for a draw, the task is much easier in the first diagram than in the second.

The complete game can be found here:
Aronian - Karyakin, Zurich Chess Challenge Blitz, 2015

I really don't know. Which is why I was fascinated by this example and chose it for this blog.

Oh well... these guys are 2700 GMs for a reason, and I am not...

Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2015 in Wijk Aan Zee

I want to make good on my new year's resolution to update this blog more regularly again. I'm going to ease into it with an observation from the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2015 in Wijk aan Zee.

With only one round to go, it seems pretty certain at this point that Carlsen is going to win the tournament after all despite his rocky start, with only 1 point from his first 3 games.

Giri - So after 31. Qxb4 from the 12th round 

 

Giri is a pawn up. It's a distant passed pawn, and considering that Giri as a 2700+ grandmaster certainly has the technique to bring this position home, White is clearly winning. 

However, I was really surprised to see that the game went on for another 80 (!) moves. It's true that White's kingside has some pretty serious weaknesses around the light squares, and in queen endings the defender usually has a million checks available to prolong the game. But still, it's quite an achievement to have the technique to convert the a-pawn. 

So finally resigned after 111. a8Q

Pushing the pawn to convert it eventually is harder than it looks as I have experienced in many games myself. 

Bishop and Pawn vs. Bishop

This is a position from a practice game against one of the people I'm giving chess lessons to. My opponent resigned a little prematurely. The remaining moves would have been quite instructive: