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Was the draw "prearranged": Gelfand-Aronian (2006)

Gelfand-Aronian game from the Tal Memorial appears to be rather strange to me.


Gelfand-Aronian (Moscow, 2006)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4. Bg2 Bb4+ 5. Bd2 Be7 6. Nf3 0-0 7. 0-0 c6 8. Bf4 b6 9. Nc3 Bb7 10. Nd2 Nh5 11. Be5 Nd7 12. e4 Nxe5 13. dxe5 dxc4 14. Bf3 g6 15. Bxh5 gxh5 16. Nxc4

This is the final position of the game. White appears to be having some advantage here. Besides, by winning this game, Gelfand could catch up with Ponomarev and Aronian and tie for first. However in this position...a draw was agreed. It is not clear to me why Gelfand decided not to play on.

Any thoughts?

posted by Webbaron @ 2:09 AM