LCC R03: The solid Berlin and the volatile Najdorf!

The 7th London Chess Classic, England's premier tournament, takes place at its traditional venue of Kensington Olympia from Friday December 4th to Sunday December 13th. The main event, the strongest ever held in the UK, is a nine-round ten-player super tournament played at a rate of 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by the rest of the game in one hour with a 30-second increment from move 41. The overall prize fund is $300,000, with the winner getting $75,000.

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15-minute summary of round three by Daniel King

LCC Round Three: The solid Berlin and the volatile Najdorf!

Report from London by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

Botvinnik recommended walking to playing hall from the hotel, before the start of the game, as a good habit for any tournament player. The present day elite players have differing views on this. Some like to walk while some prefer to conserve their energy and arrive in an automobile. However at the London Chess Classic all the ten elite players come to the tournament hall walking. The reason?

The Olympia Center where the tournament is being held, and Hotel Hilton where the top players are staying are just 300 metres away from each other. ChessBase’s photographer Amruta Mokal positioned herself between the hotel and playing venue to take some candid pictures of the elite players walking on the streets of London!

World Champion Magnus Carlsen always comes walking to the tournament hall
with his trusted second Peter Heine Nielsen

After drawing their game in round two Aronian and Anand decide that
walking together to the venue would be a good idea!

Nakamura enters the Olympia Center with his girlfriend Mariagrazia de Rosa

21-year-old Anish Giri and 25-year-old Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
try to keep pace with Anish's coach Vladimir Tukmakov, who is 69

“Avoid the Najdorf!” – Veselin Topalov and Silvio Danailov listen to what the latter’s son has to say

Fabiano Caruana is not alone in London – a certain ex-FIDE World Champion is trying
to help him win the Grand Chess Tour (spoiler: it's Rustam Ksaimdzhanov)

The man of the moment was surely Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who
beat Veselin Topalov to score the lone victory in the third round

Topalov played a fine opening and early middlegame. However, he went horribly wrong with 28…Bxf1. The mutual exchanges left White with a strong a-passer. A few further inaccuracies meant that Topalov slumped to his second defeat in the tournament, and MVL joined Anish Giri at the top.

Topalov’s currently leads the Grand Chess Tour standings but his 0.5/3 start at the
London Chess Classic means that his chances of winning the GCT are pretty grim

Danny King dissects the MVL-Topalov game on his powerplay video given at the top of this report.

The match-up which everyone was definitely looking forward to

Carlsen played a provocative move order in the Berlin Endgame with 10…Be6. Vishy Anand replied well and had a very tangible advantage. However, an inaccuracy meant that the roles had been reversed. It was Carlsen now in the driver’s seat. But surprisingly Carlsen too wasn’t able to play accurately and in the end the players had to split the point.

Oh no, YABE! Yet another Berlin Endgame...

The post-game conference saw a relaxed Anand and a not-so-happy Magnus

Sunday meant that a huge number of people came to watch
the strongest tournament ever held on English soil

Aronian had the slightly more comfortable side of the draw in his game against Michael Adams

“Come on Mickey, you cannot expect to employ a line of the Anti-Marshall
in which I have already beaten Carlsen, Nakamura and Giri, and get the better of me!”

Grischuk showcased some fierce preparation in the Berlin Endgame today…

…but Giri quite miraculously survived

Typical Alexander Grischuk: when you think for 63 minutes on your 20th move
you need a lot of coffee to support the effort!

The Nakamura Stare© did the trick as he saved a lost position against Fabiano Caruana

Game of the Day Round two The lucky winner of the London Chess Classic Round two poll is John Bottomley. He wins a copy of Fritz 15 or ChessBase Magazine, which will be delivered to him. You can still vote for round three.

British Knockout Championships

At the halfway mark in this six-game match David Howell leads with a score of 2:1.

£30,000 is at stake in the six-match British knockout finals between David Howell and Nicholas Pert - £20,000 to the winner and £10,000 to the runner-up. After a tame draw in game one we saw two fighting games in rounds two and three. In the second round David won taking 1.5:0.5 lead in the match. Today in game three, Pert seemed determined to level the scores. He played the Qb3 variation in the c6-d5 Grunfeld. A slow maneuvering game ensued where Howell took the risky decision of giving up his g7 bishop in order to win a pawn. White had ample of compensation, and this turned into a serious advantage when Howell blundered back the pawn. Material was even and Pert had the bishop pair. It seemed as if the scores were going to be leveled, but it was not to be. David defended well and the game ended in a draw after 78 moves.

FIDE Open

Evgeny Postny is the sole leader after four rounds at the London Chess Classic FIDE Open. He is followed by a huge pack of 19 players on 3.5/4.

The top seed of the event has maintained a clean slate with four victories

In the fourth round Postny faced the talented Danish International Master Mads Andersen. It seemed as if the position arising from the QGA would end in a draw. However Mads got his bishop on d5 badly pinned. In the end the bishop was lost to a nice little tactic:

The famous English player GM Mark Hebden is on 3.5/4

GM Aleksandr Lenderman won his game against IM Marc Esserman to reach 3.5/4

Standings after round four

Legendary photographer Ray Morris-Hill, excellent reviewer of chess books and DVDs
Carl Portman and sublime chess player and commentator Tania Sachdev

Oh, yes, she did DVD recording with us – you can order them in the ChessBase Shop

The spirit of a true winner!

GM Matthew Sadler prepares himself for a long day of chess analysis!

Nette Robinson, a chess artist, has done some wonderful paintings of the elite players. On the right
you can see the trophy that will be presented to the winner of the London Chess Classic designed by her.

In this video Nette explains the various facets of the 2015 London Chess Classic trophy

Two ChessBase.com authors share a moment of mirth: Sagar Shah and John Nunn

Photos by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India

Schedule of the London Chess Classic 2015

Live commentary on Playchess

Links Official tournament site Download all LCC games + Open games The games are being 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 there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.