London R01: Giri beats Topalov with black

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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Round one summary: Veselin Topalov always had the initiative against Anish Giri, but in time-pressure fell victim to a vicious counterattack. Alexander Grischuk almost fell victim to a similar counterattack after misplaying the Berlin with white, but Hikaru Nakamura failed to bring the point home. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took no risk with White against Magnus Carlsen's Sveshnikov and opted for a quick draw while Michael Adams, who was playing with Black against Vishy Anand, had no problems to neutralize Anand's English Opening. The game between Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian offered more excitement, but it also ended in a draw after 51 moves.

Replay the games of the round

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Daniel King's summary of round one (17½ minutes)

LCC R01: Giri, the lone victor!

Report from London by IM Sagar Shah

As we (me and my wife) jumped out of the public bus which stopped near the Olympia Center in Kensington, London we noticed Magnus Carlsen walking on the street towards the tournament hall. With father Henrik Carlsen at the front, Magnus walked swiftly as he discussed some of his opening ideas with Peter Heine Nielsen. The tournament hall is located on the third floor of the magnificent exhibition and conference center. As Magnus and his team entered the elevator, Nakamura and his girlfriend Mariagrazia de Rosa announced their presence in the lobby. The security guards wanted to check our bags, and we couldn’t join these elite players as the doors of the elevator closed behind us. We quickly took the stairs so as to save time and when we reached the third floor, where the entire chess festival of the seventh London Chess Classic is being held, it was a sight to behold. All of the ten elite players were present and they were surrounded from all the sides by their admirers, photographers and news reporters.

The ten players averaging a mammoth 2784.2 Elo are the participants of the
seventh London Chess Classic, which is also the last leg of the Grand Chess Tour

They were then made to stand in front of their respective posters

Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand have locked horns against each other in the last two World Championship matches. A game between them is always interesting to see. They will be playing each other in the third round in this event.

After the photo session the players proceeded towards the auditorium which was the playing hall. The tournament director Malcolm Pein announced the name of the players, along with a small introduction, to take up their positions on the board, one by one. We have captured the four minute video for you to enjoy:

The first game of the day to finish was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
against Magnus Carlsen, which ended in an uneventful draw

Magnus employed the Sveshnikov Variation with black and made a draw without any difficulties

Each and every elite player who came out of the auditorium, after finishing his game, was stormed
by fans, asking him to pose for pictures or sign an autograph. The players graciously obliged.

The most exciting game of the day was surely Veselin Topalov against Anish Giri. In the above picture you can see Anish trying to remember his analysis after Topalov plays 5.Qa4 in the solid Grunfeld Variation.

Topalov had a clear advantage in most part of the game, but in time pressure
he fell to a very nice tactical trick that Anish had prepared

Anish scored the only victory of the day and continues his unbeaten form in the Grand Chess Tour

Veselin Topalov - Anish Giri

In the above position White has just captured a pawn on a7 (instead of taking the knight on e4). That was a fatal mistake. Can you find the tactical shot Anish Giri executed, and can you work it out to the end?

“I felt like going back in time when I had zero understanding and would set some tactical traps, which my higher rated opponents would fall into,” said Anish in his post-game conference with Daniel King and Jan Gustaffson.

Anish’s wife Sopiko Guramishvili is playing in the FIDE open section
and won her first round game quite convincingly

Hikaru Nakamura played some excellent chess with the black pieces
in the Berlin Defence and very nearly got the better of his opponent…

…but Alexander Grischuk defended tenaciously and with some luck managed to avoid defeat

Nothing drastic happened in the 6.d3 Ruy Lopez game between these two –
the players agreed to a truce in 51 moves.

Michael Adams, the organizer’s nomination to the London leg of the Grand Chess Tour,
began with a solid draw against the five-time World Champion Vishy Anand

Jennifer Shahade asked Vishy Anand on how confident he felt about winning the Grand Chess Tour. “My first aim is to play a good tournament and win the London Chess Classic and then think about the Grand Chess Tour”, was Vishy’s reply.

ChessBase are offering free copies of the newly-released Fritz 15, and ChessBase Magazine 169, to the online audience of the 7th London Chess Classic. All viewers will be able to vote online for the best game of each round of the Classic, and one randomly-drawn person will win a prize each day.

Anand’s hometown Chennai is in turmoil with incessant rainfall which have caused the flooding of many areas in the city. Many people are homeless, while houses are left without electricity and drinking water. Many of the flights from the Chennai airport were cancelled, but Vishy managed to make it to London without too many difficulties. We asked him about Chennai and he sends strength and wishes to the people of his city.

Alejandro Ramirez and Yasser Seirawan are commentating from Saint Louis, USA, for this event

Meanwhile Danny King entertains the audience with fascinating commentary from the playing venue

British Knockout Championships

The inaugural edition of the British knockout championships began with eight players. We are now down to final two – David Howell and Nick Pert. The two will indulge in a six game match which is being played from the 4th to the 9th of December. The first game of the match began as a Grunfeld with Pert having the white pieces. White had a small advantage out of the opening, but indecisive play resulted in a quick draw in just 15 moves.

Richard Pert gives his brother some last minute advice before the game begins.
Richard and Nick are identical twins and it is very easy to confuse one for the other.

Six games is a huge duration and no one would like to begin with a loss – so both played it safe.

Nick Pert has been having the tournament of his life. After knocking out Jonathon Hawkins in the quarter-finals, he went on to eliminate Luke McShane in the semis. We caught up with him after his first game against David Howell and did a small interview with him:

The FIDE Open

Along with the elite event and the British knockout championships, another strong event takes place at the Olympia Centre in London – the London Chess Classic FIDE Open. 216 players from all around the world have come to participate in this event, which has a rating average of 2125. There are 27 grandmasters taking part in the tournament and six of them are above 2600 Elo rating.

With a rating of 2670, ChessBase author Evgeny Postny from Israel is the top seed at the event

You may want to check out Evgeny's ChessBase Magazine recordings in the Shop

There were not many upsets in the first round apart from two experienced GMs Peter Wells and Neil McDonald losing their games to much lower rated opponents Roger De Coverly and Toni Riedner respectively. Tomorrow the FIDE Open will have two rounds at 10 a.m. and 4.30 p.m.

A huge shop with hundreds of books and DVDs on sale is present at the venue

Chess is everywhere at the London Chess Classic. It’s surely a-must-visit-event for every chess lover

Pictures by Amruta Mokal

Schedule and results

Live commentary on Playchess

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN 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.