Chess: Aronian reclaims World Cup

Favourite Levon Aronian eventually proved his superiority over surprise-finalist Ding Liren 2-0 in the rapid tie-break games for a 4-2 triumph to regain the World Cup after more than a decade, here on Wednesday.

After the four classical games kept the players locked at 2-2 on Tuesday, the 2005 champion Aronian drew first blood in 30 moves of the first rapid game where he played with white pieces.

Favourite Levon Aronian eventually proved his superiority over surprise-finalist Ding Liren 2-0 in the rapid tie-break games for a 4-2 triumph to regain the World Cup after more than a decade, here on Wednesday. After the four classical games kept the players locked at 2-2 on Tuesday, the 2005 champion Aronian drew first blood in 30 moves of the first rapid game where he played with white pieces.

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In the second game, a desperate Liren’s rash attack backfired. Just when Aronian was looking good to deliver the knockout punch, the Chinese resigned in 33 moves. The finalists have qualified to be part of next year’s eight-player Candidates tournament that aims to find the challenger to Magnus Carlsen in the next World Championship match. Carlsen and previous challenger Sergey Karjakin are seeded for the tournament.

The results: Final: Rapid tie-break: Game Two: Ding Liren (Chn, 2) lost to Levon Aronian (Arm, 4); Game One: Aronian bt Liren.