The 2012 London Chess Classic is taking place in the Olympia Conference Centre from Saturday, December 1st until Monday, December 10th. Games start each day in general at 14:00h London time, except for round four (16:00h) and the final round (12:00h). Time controls are classical forty moves in two hours, then twenty moves in one hour and thirty minutes for the rest of the game. A win is counted as three points, a draw as one, and a loss zero. Tiebreaks: 1) number of wins, 2) number of wins with black, 3) result of the individual game between the tied players. In the unlikely event that there is still a tie then: 4) 2 x 15'+2" games, and if necessary 5) Armageddon game: 6'+2" vs 5'+2" with draw odds for black. If there is a tie involving more than two players then the Rapid games will be conducted as a double round all play all.

Round five

By Alejandro Ramirez

You cannot ask for any more from a super tournament than what we have seen in London! What a round! The players came back from their rest day with the desire to kill! It was a dark day for the English who were absolutely mauled by the visiting super stars. On top of that we had the matchup Polgar-Nakamura, two of the most aggressive players to ever be considered Super-GMs. A decisive result was a guarantee; the only question is who the point would go to.

Polgar-Nakamura 0-1
Hikaru Nakamura’s Archangel Spanish left him with the disadvantage of facing the two bishops as his quickly developed but somewhat vulnerable dark square bishop was traded for a knight. However, with some clever knight rerouting he forced the trade of one of his knights for the light squared bishop, and a curious opposite colored bishop struggle arose. Some unusually passive play by Judit Polgar handed the initiative to Hikaru, who never let go. He won a pawn and held the advantage, but never let go of the attack. After further misplay from Polgar, Black was able to organize a surprising mating attack and the game was over.

Kramnik-McShane 1-0
To me the most memorable game of last year was Luke McShane’s demolition of Aronian in an a6 slav. Vladimir Kramnik chooses a more sedate approach, one that has been annoying for Black lately. A brilliant exchange sacrifice in the middle game netted him a powerful position and an array of weaknesses to attack. Luke McShane tried to hold on, but after another (!) exchange sacrifice his position was on the verge of collapsing. Kramnik shows his usual technique and mops up a brilliant point.

Jones-Anand 0-1
This game was rather unfortunate for the young Englishman. An f3 Gruenfeld lands the players in a murky position, and every move that White plays makes his position worse and worse, until at move 20 he is simply down a piece. Some liquidation tactics and White resigned.

Adams-Carlsen 0-1
The tournament’s wrecking ball came close to being stopped today! Michael Adams held a nice advantage in the middlegame, but he shied from complications and allowed Magnus Carlsen to equalize. Perhaps hoping to save the half point as easily as possible, Adams allowed a seemingly harmless endgame. But the combined powers of Carlsen’s bishop and queen proved to be too much for the stranded white king. White shed a pawn, and then blundered into a lost K+P endgame. Carlsen didn’t forgive and continues his destruction of London.

Photos by Ray Morris-Hill

Analysis of the games by the players

Gawain Jones - Vishy Anand London Chess Classic 2012 Round 5

Michael Adams - Magnus Carlsen London Chess Classic 2012 Round 5

Vladimir Kramnik - Luke McShane London Chess Classic 2012 Round 5

Judit Polgar - Hikaru Nakamura London Chess Classic 2012 Round 5

Pictures by Frederic Friedel and Pascal Simon

Daniel King: Highlights of round five

Andrew Martin: Game of the Day (Kramnik vs McShane)

Replay all the games of the round

Standings (London scoring)

Standings (traditional scoring)

Pictures by Pascal Simon for ChessBase

Live video coverage and commentary

The on-demand video coverage with commentary can be seen here

Pairings and results

The games – except for rounds four and nine – start at 2 p.m. or 14:00h British time = 15:00h CET, 17:00h Moscow, 7:30 p.m. Chennai, 22:00h Beijing, 01:00 a.m. Melbourne, 03:00 a.m. Auckland, 6 a.m. San José, 9 a.m. New York. You can check your location here. Naturally the games will be covered live on the official web site (below) and on Playchess. The games of round four begin two hours later, those of the final round two hours earlier.

Watch the live stream from the London Chess classic here.

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN All ChessBase reports on the LCC 2012 (+ 2011, 2010 and 2009) The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client and get immediate access. Or you can get our latest Fritz 13 program, which includes six months free premium membership to Playchess.