LCC R04: Nakamura is World No. 2

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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LCC R04: Nakamura is World No. 2

Report from London by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

Many people would dub the 7th London Chess Classic as one of the boring elite events where draws take the center-stage and decisive results are as rare as hen’s teeth. Surely three wins and 17 draws out of 20 games is not an encouraging sign, but that is superficial: the level of fighting chess on show is quite heartening. Have a look at what transpired in the fourth round: Hikaru Nakamura played a fine positional game to down Vishy Anand, Michael Adams showed extreme tenacity to defend a difficult position against Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana’s psychological ploy was simply brilliant against Veselin Topalov, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s Najdorf against Grischuk was anything but boring. But before we go into the specifics, here’s a beautiful video of all the participants of the London Chess Classic where they describe the competitors mostly in one word:

An Englishman (Adams), an Italian-American (Caruana), a Frenchman (MVL) and an Indian (Anand)
wait for the games to begin. Eagle eyes will spot at least three recognizable spectators

Is that legal? Hero of the fourth round Hikaru Nakamura takes back the wrong ceremonial move 1.e4 made
during the inauguration. He pushed the queen’s pawn and won his game against Vishy Anand in 41 moves.

Vishy’s tea was no match for Nakamura’s Red Bull today. With this loss, the ex-World Champion
is relegated to the fifth position in world rankings, while Nakamura retakes the second spot.

Nakamura on his win against Vishy and more

Playing for six hours, 78 moves, pressing throughout the game and still
having to settle for a half point! That’s the life of a Chess World Champion.

Michael Adams repeatedly shows that he is a tough nut to crack. After being an exchange down he set up an excellent fortress which was simply impregnable. Carlsen tried his best, even sacrificing a piece, but Mickey hung on.

Levon Aronian equalized easily and made a comfortable draw against Anish Giri

A day in the life of Anish Giri: (from upper left clockwise) 1. Your opponent surprises you,
2. You try to remember your analysis, 3. The game ends in a quick draw and you are
not too happy with it, 4. You go and check out your wife’s game who is playing in the FIDE Open.

Anish Giri on his game with Aronian, the city of London,
the daily schedule and whether Sopiko helps him in preparation

After dismantling the Najdorf in round three MVL himself employed
the Najdorf against Grischuk and got a great position out of the opening

“… and that was the key idea in the position!” Grischuk and MVL are very good friends.

Grischuk – Vachier-Lagrave, Round four

White has just pushed his pawn to h4. What should Black do?

Caruana employed a brilliant psychological ploy to salvage the half point against Veselin Topalov

Topalov – Caruana, round five

In the above position Caruana moved his rook from e8-c8. White has a clear advantage thanks to the better pawn structure and a superior minor piece on c4. Before taking concrete action Topalov was going to move his king from the queenside to the kingside, somewhere on g2. However, the move Rc8 distracted him from the king journey and instead he played Ba6, trying to win material. But after Qa7 Bxc8 Qxa2+ in spite of being a pawn down Black generated so much counterplay that Topalov couldn’t keep things under control.

Standings after four rounds

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

Three dudes at work: Jan Gustaffson, Daniel King and Lawrence Trent. Although there are no
female commentators at the event, there is surely a lot of woman power present at the playing venue.

Sopiko Guramishvili is on 3.5/5 at the FIDE Open

Tania Sachdev has the same score as Sopiko and has remained unbeaten so far

Cecile Haussernot from France is on 2.0/5

Chess is the dress code for the event!

Chess teachers in London: Anuradha Beniwal, Devangee Patankar and Maria Manelidou

Can you guess who this important personality is? Hint: She is making a mark as
press officer and a commentator in many elite events recently

British Knockout Championships

After four games David leads the six-game match with a score of 2.5:1.5

After two fighting games that lasted nearly six hours each, David Howell and Nick Pert played it safe today and agreed to a draw in 15 moves. The game however lasted for nearly three hours! This just shows how much pressure both the players are under.

David Howell speaks about fourth game and the pressure of the £20,000 first prize.

FIDE Open

Postny was held to a draw by Benjamin Bok and is now on 4.5/5

Aleksandr Lenderman won a fine game against Swayams Mishra to join the leaders

Eric Hansen from Canada beat Sagar Shah to move to 4.5/5

IM C.R.G. Krishna joined the leaders by beating Jahongir Vakhidov

GM Tamas Fodor Jr. started the tournament with a draw.
But since then he has won all his four games and is now on 4.5/5.

GM Vishnu Prasanna, who resides in Chennai, is on 4.0/5

The reason we mention Vishnu’s city is because the chess capital of India and the home of Vishy Anand – the city of Chennai, has been under heavy turmoil in the last few days. Incessant rainfall has led to disruption of lives and livelihood of thousands of people.

Really, that’s how bad it is

ChessBase India published an article on their website showing the plight of the people of Chennai in these arduous times. If you would like to donate to the noble cause of helping the stranded people, have a look at the ChessBase India article for more information. A few minutes of your time could help to save the lives of many.

Love thy neighbour as thyself: ChessBase India article on Chennai floods

Read the Times of India report here

Leaders after Round 5

Full results and standins of all 141 players may be found here

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 + KO 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.