Levon Aronian scored a 4.5-1.5 victory in his clock simul against the six most talented young German chess players on Friday in Meissen. The Armenian grandmaster, who is the world's number 2 in the live rankings, won three games and drew three games.

It was Levon Aronian's first clock simul ever. As we announced last Thursday, it took place on Friday afternoon in the Meissen Porcelain Factory and was named Schauspiel des Geises II ("Show of the Spirits II"), after the blindfold simul by Vlastimil Hort, Marc Lang and Rasmus Svane last year at the Potsdam Kaiserbahnhof. Aronian's opponents were the six most talented juniors of Germany, who have been called "the Princes" for a few years already (once an idea of the German Chess Federation):

• Filiz Osmanodja 17 years, Elo 2255
• Dennis Wagner 15 years, Elo 2487
• Matthias Blübaum 16 years, Elo 2511
• Hanna Marie Klek 18 years, Elo 2267
• Rasmus Svane 16 years, Elo 2440
• Alexander Donchenko 15 years, Elo 2452

The time control was 2 hours for 40 moves plus 30 minutes and 30 seconds per move. During this time, Aronian had to cope with six games; his opponents only one.

Grandmasters Jan Gustafsson and Raj Tischbierek provided commentary for the hundreds of spectators: the sponsor's idea was to have non-chess players get involved in chess, and this seems to have worked as for the many visitors of the museum there was no way to "escape" from the chess spectacle in the main hall!

According to its website, the Meissen Porcelain Factory

has the most comprehensive collection of Meissen Porcelains® from the beginnings in 1710 to the present day and therefore unique amongst the world’s collections of MEISSEN®.

So what is Meissen? Let's also quote a bit from Wikipedia:

[It is] the first European hard-paste porcelain that was developed from 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger, continued his work and brought porcelain to the market. The production of porcelain at Meissen, near Dresden, started in 1710 and attracted artists and artisans to establish one of the most famous porcelain manufacturers, still in business today as Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen GmbH. Its signature logo, the crossed swords, was introduced in 1720 to protect its production; the mark of the crossed swords is one of the oldest trademarks in existence. It dominated the style of European porcelain until 1756.

As an old Soviet joke goes, the "Princes" managed to tie the match with Aronian: three draws and three losses. Afterwards the Armenian revealed an interesting strategy: he decided to play very safe with White against the boys, while he created some chaos with Black against the girls!

Below we give all six games including clock times; the three most interesting ones have some brief notes based on a chat between Raj Tischbierek and Levon Aronian after the games finished.

PGN file

L-R Bluebaum, Donchenko, Klek, Aronian, Osmanodja, Svane, Wagner

Sponsored by Dentsply Implants, the event took place one day before the start at the same location of the Mitropa Cup, the traditional European tournament dedicated to talented young chess players.