London Super Sixteen Starts

The London Super Sixteen rapid tournament has started. The main event of the London Chess Classic takes place from December 11th to December 15th at the Olympiad Conference Center in London, England. The tournament brings together many of the best players of the World as well as two qualifiers from the Open section of the London Chess Classic.

Players were divided into four groups initially, to play a double round robin between them and determine two qualifiers to the knock out stages.

A guitar performance opened the event

The groups are as follows:

Group A

A very close group. Despite Anand having focused so much energy in the recent World Chess Championship, it is cear that he is a magnificent rapid chess player and he has excellent chances of making it out of the group stage. Luke McShane will have to prove that he is not rusty to be able to have a chance of second, while it seems that more realistically the second place will be a toss-up between Adams and Istratescu.

Group B

Despite Sadler's unquestionable talent and his magnificent return to chess with an over 2900 performance in a recent tournament, it is unlikely Rowson or him have a chance against Kramnik and Svidler. Surprises are always fun but it's hard to expect one here.

Group C

Gelfand and Nakamura come as the favorites in this group, unquestionably, but unlike Group B this one is rather dangerous. Polgar is an experienced tactician who has defeated Kasparov in rapid time controls, so she is a force to be reckoned with. Further Gawain Jones is very talented and he can take away a key half or even full point from the favorites to make the group interesting.

Group D

Probably the hardest group to call. Caruana has a nice rating advantage over his opponents but rapid and blitz have never been his strong suit. On the other hand there is Nigel Short who can always play amazing chess if he feels like it, Sutovsky who is very experienced and Howell who is still young and talented.

Round 1

Young players checking out who is in the Super Sixteen

This English duel ended in a fought draw

Relatively few surprises were seen on round one. What we did see was a flurry of decisive results. Istratescu's English Opening against Adams was more than shady, and the highest rated English player played a nice technical game to win with Black.

Istratescu (left) qualified from the Open Section, as did Sutovsky

Luke McShane's game however was very different. He valiantly sacrificed a pawn in the opening and soon obtained a winning position as Anand had to surrender an exchange. Unfortunately for McShane his followup was less than stellar and his technique was atrocious, so much so that Anand even got a winning endgame being down the exchange...

Gelfand doesn't seem to approve of such aggression on move one

Svidler essayed one of those novel opening ides with the knight on the rim against Kramnik and his position was actually rather playable out of the first few moves. A miscalculation left Kramnik down a rook and a pawn against two pieces and Black was certainly looking like he had good chances to win. Carelessness however tied Black's pieces down to each other and a nice tactical coup with the king spelled disaster for Svidler's position.

Caruana won a nice tactical melee:

Hikaru Nakamura held on by the skin of his teeth against Gawain Jones but he was able to set up a fortress and hold a draw. Meanwhile Gelfand convincingly beat Polgar. Finally the Short-Howell game was spectacularly weird but it somehow ended in a draw.

Kramnik won a game he probably should not have against Svidler

Round 2

Anand and Adams played a "real game" instead of a rapid and played some theory, exchanged some pieces and solidly drew. McShane's game against Istratescu was complicated, wild and razor sharp, and the Englishman took it in the end with a beautiful finishing checkmate.

Svidler misplayed horribly his white side of a French against Sadler and had to resort to some tactics to force a perpetual. Kramnik just steamrolled over Rowson from a Reti opening.

Polgar had the advantage all throughout the game against Nakamura, probably a winning advantage too, but she misplayed the position badly and the American was able to convert an endgame that should have been harder than it was. Gelfand always had a nagging edge against Jones who blundered in an endgame which might have been held.

Howell took advantage of a blunder by Sutovsky to win an exchange and the game. Nigel Short played a ridiculous opening against Caruana (1.b4), proceeded to play in consistent ridiculous fashion and was promptly checkmated.

The Lawrence Trent and Danny King duo are doing a fantastic job doing the live analysis of the games

Daniel King's highlights of the day

Standings

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Schedule

Photographs by Ray Morris-Hill

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.