Domdaniel: Um, I've had a closer look and it seems that a lot of what I said in the previous post was rubbish. It's still a great game, and the original piece sac is ingenious -- sound, but far from a forced win. But then Aronian made heavy going of it and missed some chances to win quickly.For example: instead of 26.Nf5 there's the simple 26.Nxe6. The reply 26...Rxe6 is practically forced, and then 27.f5! wins the rook. If 27...Rxe5 28.Rxh6+ Kg7 29.f6+ wins (or 28...Kg8 29.f6 forces mate).
Another line goes 26.Nxe6 Rxe6 27.f5 Rg8 28.Rd4 [28.fxe6 is good too] Qc5 29.Qxc5 Bxc5 30.fxe6 Bxd4 31.exd4 Rf8 [31...Kg7 loses to 32.Rg3+ Kf8 33.Rxg8+ Kxg8 34.e7; and 31...fxe6 32.Rxh6+ Kg7 33.Rxe6 is also winning] 32.Rxh6+ Kg7 33.e7 Re8 34.Rd6 and White should win. But there are other ideas apart from returning the exchange with 28.Rd4.
After 26.Nf5 the next key point is move 28, when white had *three* winning moves and chose the least effective of them, 28.Nxh6.
The obvious 28.Bxg6+ fxg6 29.Rxh6+ Qxh6 30.Nxh6 Kxh6 31.f5 wins quickly. But even better is 28.Nh4!
eg, 28.Nh4 Qg7 29.f5 Qxe5 30.fxg6+ which quickly becomes a rout.
Even after 28.Nxh6 White could have improved on the next move, instead of 29.Rg1?! which let much of his advantage slip. Simplest again is 28.Nxh6 Qxh6 29.Bxg6+ fxg6 30.Rxh6+ Kxh6 31.f5, winning.
Almost all of these lines depend on playing f5 -- perhaps Aronian didn't see just how quickly it causes the black position to collapse.
Also, of course, there was never a Q-vs-R+R option, as I said previously. But there were several chances for Queen vs three minor pieces, rather than R+B+N.
Even later in the game, f5! is lethal. Take move 41, where white played 41.Qd6. Instead:
41.f5 Rxe5 42.Qg6+ Kh8 43.f6 Rg5 44.Qe8+ Rg8 45.f7 Rf8 46.Qe5+ Nf6 47.Qxf6+ Kh7 48.Qf5+ picking up the Bishop. Admittedly not a forced line, but winning for white in other variations as well.
I agree with <arsen387> about the end of the game, though -- 61.Qxd7 is nice. But it took him longer to get there than it should have.
On the other hand, White was clearly better throughout -- so maybe it's just a matter of style. I don't think Aronian's apparent oversights ever allowed black real counter-chances.
Kibitzing
sac: 20.Nd4
