LCC-R3: Thank heavens for the Evans

All quiet on the Olympia front

Round three report from London by John Saunders

Two Berlins and an Evans – start of round three in the London Chess Classic

In round three of the London Chess Classic all six players scored the full point. Everyone’s a winner! No, I’m kidding as usual, and taking a chance on some of you forgetting that the tournament uses three points for a win and one for a draw. All three games were drawn, hence one point apiece. The scores are now Kramnik and Giri 5, Adams 4, Anand 3, Caruana and Nakamura 2.

The third match game between Gawain Jones and Romain Edouard
was also a draw, so Gawain still leads, by 2-1.

All three tournament games began 1.e4, one heading for the wrong but romantic Evans Gambit and the other two for the right but repulsive Berlin Defence. Incidentally I was tickled by tournament director Malcolm Pein’s jocular threat to punish any latecomers amongst the super-GMs by forcing them to stand by the choice of first move by the children who come up on the stage to make the ceremonial first move. (Not sure how that would work with latecomers who had the black pieces but never mind.) He hasn’t had to carry through with this threat yet, though yesterday the players arrived en masse a smidgin late, having been detained in the VIP room by a particularly delicious birthday cake brought in by Sue Maroroa Jones to celebrate her hubby Gawain’s birthday. Maybe Malcolm could exploit the elite players’ sweet tooth to cure them of their Berlin fixation: “no more Berlins – or no more cake!”.

Hikaru Nakamura (above) is a young man with a sense of occasion. “The Evans Gambit is a British opening,” he told us in the commentary room. This is reminiscent of David Bronstein and Magnus Carlsen, both of whom began with the English Opening, 1.c4, on playing their first white games in prestigious English tournaments (Carlsen’s was here at the Classic, of course). And, as someone with Welsh blood coursing through his veins, I am pleased that Hikaru correctly said ‘British’ and not ‘English’ in reference to the gambit’s progenitor, Captain Wilfred Davies Evans (1790-1872), who was a Welshman, from Pembrokeshire.

There was a discussion of the merits of the Evans Gambit in the commentary room, with Peter Svidler joining the resident GMs via a skype link. The best Peter could say of the opening was that it was “better than the King’s Gambit”. It has surprise value at lower levels of the game, even against less exalted GMs, but when the custodian of the black pieces is someone as booked up as Vishy Anand, the element of surprise barely registers. Vishy chose a solid line (actually called the Conservative defence) where Black gives back the pawn to catch up with development. Hikaru unfurled a new move on move nine, but it didn’t set the pulse racing.

Now for the first of our two Berlins (East Berlin?)... not the most exciting of games. (For overseas readers, that is British understatement for ‘mind-numbingly tedious’, by the way.) The hour or so I spent going through it is time I will never get back, which is particularly sad as my sands of time are running quite low as it is. I would recommend just browsing the comments but otherwise just skipping it altogether, unless you are using it as an excuse to avoid doing your fair share of household chores.

And now for something completely the same. Well, to be fair, it isn’t. This Berlin defence game has a bit more going for it, and one glorious, fleeting, patriotic moment when it looked like Mickey might beat Vlad in the London Borough of Hammersmith for the first time. Not that that record is anything to be ashamed of. Vlad has only lost two classical games in this part of London and this is now his sixth Classic. This was only their fifth classical game here. Bear in mind that Garry Kasparov played Vlad 15 times in Hammersmith and scored +0, =13, -2.

It's just a Berlin! Anish Giri (right) and Romain Edouard curious Kramnik-Adams

Tradition scoring cross table

If music be the food of chess

One last anecdote before I stagger off to bed. Music and chess have always gone together, all the way back to Philidor, and music has often played a part at the Classic. We’ve had concert performers Alf Wilhelm Lundberg and Jason Kouchak play for us on guitar and piano at opening ceremonies, and members of the team, such as Daniel King and Nigel Short play the guitar. Daniel also plays the double bass in gigs around SW London and has been part of the backing band for chess-loving jazz singer Nette Robinson, whose chess-related art is displayed along the way to the auditorium.

Now the children are getting in on the act. I understand that, during the ‘Chris and Dan Show’ (as Chris Ward and Daniel King’s sessions with schools are known), the Melcombe Primary School choir, trained by Jason Kouchak, sang three songs: Every Move You Make (by keen chessplayer Sting), Silent Night and the CSC anthem Moving Forward. Well done, Melcombe, keep up the music and the chess.

Maybe we could round off the tournament with a rendition of White Christmas? That would be nice. Although I’ve just remembered who composed it... Irving Berlin. Oh dear, I’m starting to have second thoughts...

Important reminder: the Saturday and Sunday rounds start
two hours earlier than the previous three, at 2 p.m. UK time.

Photos by Ray Morris-Hill, John Saunders

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.