London Rd6: Grischuk grinds down Anand

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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London Chess Classic round six: Grischuk grinds Anand down

Report from London by Sagar Shah

Few minutes before the start of the sixth round nine elite players entered the auditorium of the Olympia Center in London. All of them took seats in the front row and waited for the proceedings to begin. The World Champion, however, was not present. He was at the backstage, away from all the distractions, getting mentally prepared for his game against Anish Giri. The 21-year-old lad from Netherlands, who is the youngest participant in the event, is one of the very few players who have a plus score against Magnus Carlsen in classical chess. The Norwegian was here to change that. Tournament director Malcolm Pein called out the names of the players, and they took their seats at the board – Magnus emerging from behind the scenes. Soon enough round six was underway.

After Anish beat Magnus in their first ever encounter at the Tata Steel 2011, the players
have faced-off against each other nine more times and all the games have ended in draws

Many of the spectators heaved a sigh of relief as Magnus went for 3…a6, instead of the usual 3…Nf6 that leads to the Berlin. The game was an interesting Ruy Lopez where White always had a small edge, but the advantage never really became threatening. After a few accurate moves by Carlsen, the game ended in a draw. Giri once again maintained his bragging rights of having a plus score against the World Champion.

Anish and his wife Sopiko are happy with how things went in his game today

It’s not very common to see the World Champion so animated in a post-game conference

The entertaining press conference video of Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri is not to be missed

Alexander Grischuk provided the only decisive game of round six by beating Vishy Anand

A long time ago Grischuk had come up with a new opening idea with white. But whenever he started his game with 1.c4 his opponents would reply with 1…Nf6 and he couldn’t use it in his games. However today when Vishy played 1…e5 in reply to 1.c4 Grischuk immediately responded with 2.d3!? This seemed to throw Anand off balance as he thought for nearly three minutes for his next move. A move like 2.d3 is of course not theoretically dangerous, but it unsettles your opponent, as he has almost never seriously prepared against it. Grischuk wanted an original game, maybe be a tempo up in the Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian! He played a fine opening and a flawless middlegame to get a completely winning position. But in the endgame he went wrong and gave Anand a golden chance to draw. Anand missed the opportunity and had to resign after just three more moves.

He played my line! Anand let me play 2.d3!

So how did Grischuk celebrate his victory? Grocery shopping at a TESCO supermarket

Nakamura – Aronian, Round six

Here Aronian (Black) executed a typical idea which is common
in openings like the French Defence. Can you find it?

While Levon was cool, calm and composed…

… Hikaru stretched each and every neuron in his brain to find the elusive += with white

MVL and Caruana played the mandatory Berlin, which ended in an uneventful draw

What the hell is going on?? Veselin Topalov’s misfortunes in the tournament
continue as he drew a completely winning game against Michael Adams

A short chat with Michael Adams who has made six draws in six rounds

Standings after six rounds

Game of the Day Round five

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 can vote online for the best game of each round of the Classic, and one randomly-drawn person will win a prize each day. Winners so far: Round 1: Lee Phillips [Anand v Carlsen] Round 2: John Bottomley [Carlsen v Carauna] Round 3: Robert Bell [Topalov v Giri] Round 4: Andrew Offord [Nakamura v Anand] Round 5: Nicolas Chiffot [Anand v Topalov]

British Knockout Championships

GM David Howell won the inaugural British Knockout Championships

Going into the sixth and final game of the match, David Howell, who had a point’s lead over Nick Pert, held his nerve, scored a full point and emerged as the champion of the British Knockout Championships. For his efforts Howell goes back home with a check of £20,000. A detailed report by WIM Sabrina Chevannes on this championship will follow soon on our newspage.

John Nunn, who turned 60 this year, is three-time Problem Solving World Champion.
Here he gets ready for his 20 board simultaneous display.

The games are under way, some opponents are already in trouble

Coffee kept John going in the simul that lasted for nearly two and a half hours.
The British grandmaster scored 19.0/20 (two draws) – typical Nunn.

John’s wife WFM Petra Nunn records the feat on her mobile phone

ChessBase readers and chess lovers all around the world are well acquainted with Daniel King’s brilliant commentary, videos and DVDs. He is one of the official commentators at the London Chess Classic. During one of his breaks we caught up with him and did a small interview where Danny explains the reason for the high percentage of draws in the tournament, how the PowerPlay DVD series started ten years ago, his Youtube channel and what are his future plans.

Daniel King has recorded dozens of Power Play and other DVDs for ChessBase

FIDE Open

Three players led at the London Classic FIDE Open after seven rounds – Evgeny Postny, Benjamin Bok and Eric Hansen. In the eighth round Postny drew his game against Edouard Romain. This gave a chance to either Bok or Hansen to take the sole lead with a victory.

The crucial top board clash of round eight between Benjanmin Bok and Eric Hansen

Benjamin played a fine game in the Catalan to win and thus take a half point’s lead over the field with 7.0/8. The last round of the FIDE Open will be played on the 11th of December at 16.30 hours local time. Bok faces Lenderman on the top board while Postny is up against Vakhidov and Melkumyan’s opponent is Jumabayev. It promises to be an exciting finish as the players will it battle out for the first prize of £5,000.

Levon Aronian comes over to the FIDE Open hall to check on the games
of his Armenian friends Tigran Gharamian and Hrant Melkumyan

Some players like Rinat Jumabayev like to bring their drinks to the hall in style

… while some are lucky to be served by their supporters!

Cecile Haussernot is a four-time French girls champion and two time European Champion. Along with her strong moves, she brings style and charisma to any chess tournament that she attends. She is currently on 4.5/8.

Top standings after Round 8

Full results and standings of 166 players

Analyzing in the greatest possible comfort!

A belated 28th birthday to Hikaru Nakamura, who celebrated his on the 9th of December, and
special greetings (from ChessBase India) to Vishy Anand, who on 11th December turns 46 years.

All pictures by WIM elect Amruta Mokal who poses here with
some random dude that she met at the tournament in London

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.