Airthings Masters: Aronian lucky to hold Radjabov

Levon Aronian escaped with a 45-move draw in the first game of the opening set in the final of the $200,000 Airthings Masters online rapid chess tournament on Saturday.

On Friday, Radjabov and Aronian advanced to the final with comfortable victories in the second set, too against Daniil Dubov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, respectively.

Airthings Masters: Radjabov torments Dubov in first game of second set  

Radjabov saw off Dubov’s all-or-nothing approach and won twice in succession to put an early end to the Russian’s challenge.

Aronian, following two drawn games, pulled off a 113-move win over Vachier and joined Radjabov in posting straight-set victories in the semifinals.

The results:

Final: Set One, Game One: Teimour Radjabov (Aze) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm)

For third place: Set One, Game One: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave  (Fra) lost to Daniil Dubov (Rus)

Semifinals: Set Two: Radjabov beats Dubov 2-0; Aronian beats Vachier 2-1