LCC R08: Giri wins, exciting finish expected

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 Round 8 – Giri leads, exiciting finish expected

Report from London by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

Things are heating up at the London Chess Classic, which is also the last leg of the Grand Chess Tour. Apart from the first prize of US $75,000 at the London tournament, there is also the Grand Chess Tour money of $150,000 (75k, 50k and 25k) at stake.

The entrance of the Olympia Centre which hosts the London Chess Classic. The weather
in London is pretty grim – even at 2 p.m. in the afternoon it is quite dark and overcast.

Anish and Fabi: the biggest threats to Magnus Carlsen captured in one frame

One of the great qualities of these top GMs is that they always play their next game independent of the result in the previous one. Nakamura and Anand had both lost their seventh round games, but are seen in great spirits before the eighth round

You know what I got? I got the World Champion’s autograph before the game!!!

Ever wondered what keeps these elite players going for seven hours of play?
We are now able to reveal: it's Mars, Twix, Snickers, cookies, juice, fruits and ice cubes!

The only decisive game of the day was Anish Giri getting the better of Hikaru Nakamura

Anish’s strategy was pretty clear – he wanted an original game with less emphasis on opening theory. He chose the King’s Indian Attack beginning with 1.Nf3. Hikaru played the opening logically and soon had a perfectly acceptable position. But then he underestimated Giri’s play and before he knew it he was staring at a tough defensive task. The Dutch grandmaster took his chances to perfection and converted the game with consummate ease.

Hikaru sported a new hairstyle and complimented his RedBull with a cup of coffee,
a maneuver that did little to improve his final result in this game!

What is he thinking? We refrain from proposing one of the many ideas that occurred to us and
leave it to our readers to come up with a suitable caption in the feedback section below.
In any case Anish now joins MVL as the leader with 5.0/8.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave could do very little to inflict harm on Michael Adam’s Breyer

World’s leading expert on the Breyer kibitzes the game

Michael Adams with an astonishing eight draws out of eight games takes on Fabiano Caruana who has also achieved the same feat (eight draws) in the last round! One thing is for sure both of them will end with similar number of draws at the end of the event!

Caruana came to the game armed with a new and dangerous idea in the Catalan which caused…

…Vishy Anand a considerable amount of anxiety with regards to how to equalize the game

But Anand defended tenaciously, entering a pawn down rook ending, and making use of all his resources he managed to obtain the draw. It is a game worth going over from the point of view of not only opening theory but also learning a theoretical rook endgame. Also a very important facet of Caruana’s opening preparation is revealed: he does not always go for the top most line of the engine but rather works with ideas. The engine might not agree with him (most often they do only after a considerable amount of time) but Fabiano’s moves pose practical problems to human players, which sometimes they can solve and sometimes they cannot. That is why he is so successful.

Where do you find all those wonderful moves?

After a seven hour grind against Hikaru it seemed as if Magnus would try to finish his game a little quicker than yesterday. However the careful way in which he was adjusting his pieces before the game convinced us that we could be in for another long game

Topalov was on the receiving end of some Carlsenesque technique, but guess what saved him?

The 50-move rule! Yes, the rule which says the game would end in a draw if there are no exchanges or pawn moves for 50 moves. Carlsen got a slightly pleasant position in a rook + knight + three pawns endgame and mercilessly kept shuffling his pieces. It seemed as if he was doing nothing, but as Carlsen said in the post-game conference, “I was improving my position little by little. That’s the way I win my games.” The last pawn move took place on the 49th and Carlsen was making steady progress when he had reached move 85. He had only four more moves before Topalov could claim a draw. Hence, he took the pawn on e5. But after that the pawn down rook endgame posed no problems for Topalov to hold.

Caruana-Anand ended at the same moment as Topalov-Carlsen.
Anand comes by to check out why Carlsen took the pawn on e5.

Omygod, the 50 move rule! Would you believe it?!

He tried his best, but rules are rules in chess!

More interested in other battles? Grischuk-Aronian was an exciting game that ended in a draw.

Let me think! Jennifer Shahade usually has some interesting
questions prepared for the top players after the game

Always lively and filled with humour: chief arbiter Albert Vasse

Albert has been the chief arbiter of the London Chess Classic since its inception seven years ago. He is also the founder of the DGT technology which builds the sensor boards that provide live transmission to your computer screens the moment the moves are made!

Behind the scenes: the reason why you can enjoy the live games and video transmission

Saturday ensured a huge turnout of chess lovers at the tournament venue

One of the best parts about the London Chess Classic is that after the players have finished their games they go from the tournament to the commentary room through the foyer. The public can meet the stars, take autographs and click selfies with them!

And you could also challenge a GM to a blitz game for a donation of £5 which goes to charity.
In the above picture you can see John Nunn battling out against a young kid.

Romain Edouard’s book signing also took place in the foyer. The name of the book is
“The Chess Manual of Avoidable Mistakes" and it is by Thinkers Publishing.

After eight rounds this is how the London Classics standings look like:

Giri and Vachier-Lagrave are leading the tournament two wins and six draws each

Sunday, the 13th of December, is the last day of the event. With as many as five players having a chance to win the title as well as the Grand Chess Tour, and also the chances of a rapid play-off taking place, we can expect a record turnout of people at the playing venue as well as online.

The Grand Chess Tour standings without the London event

Currently Anish has the best chance to win the Grand Chess Tour because he is on 13 points and an outright win will give him an additional 13 points, when he would be untouchable. However, if Magnus and Aronian were to join the leaders then the Armenian has the best chance to win the tour, as he currently has more points than anyone else. It is all pretty confusing. Suffice it to say that the last round at the London Chess Classic is going to be filled with action and drama. And if there is a tie between two or more players for the first place there would be a play-off thirty minutes after the end of the final round. Here is full information about the tiebreak rules.

Photos by Amruta Mokal of ChessBase India

Schedule and results 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.