LCC R6: Hurricane Carlsen is upgraded to Category Five

by ChessBase
12/7/2012 – The hurricane grading system is based on devastation, with five being the highest. Magnus Carlsen is equally destructive of the London field as he beat Judit Polgar in his best win according to him, and a live rating of 2864. Adams beat Anand after the Indian blundered horribly in a drawn position, while McShane beat Gawain in a wild game. Aronian and Kramnik drew. Full report with postgame analysis.

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Round six report

With summaries by GM Alejandro Ramirez

London continues to be a bloody battlefield as the decisive results keep pouring in! Even the dullest of games took a turn for the worse for one of the players, and the single draw of the round, Aronian-Kramnik, was a very entertaining game itself!

Round 6: Friday, Dec. 7th, 2012, 14:00h
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
Judit Polgar
Vishy Anand
0-1
Michael Adams
Luke McShane
1-0
Gawain Jones 
Levon Aronian
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Hikaru Nakamura (bye) – assisting commentary


MIke Basman starts the game for Magnus Carlsen with his
tradmark 1. h3. Not surprisingly Magnus retracted it.


After this interlude the game Magnus Carlsen vs Judit Polgar can start in ernest


Judit Polgar with minus four at the bottom of the table

Carlsen-Polgar 1-0
Judit Polgar’s hedgehog setup allowed her to get decent chances straight out of the opening. After some inaccuracies Magnus Carlsen gained an edge, and he was able to exploit Black’s terrible piece positions with a very nicely timed e5! With her pieces gasping for air, Judit began to simplify the position by exchanging her dark squared bishop for an opponent’s knight. However, this proved to be a fatal mistake, as her kingside position had too many dark squared weaknesses and not a single piece that could cover them. Magnus swooped in and finished her off elegantly to reach 2864.


Magnus Carlsen on the attack – from move one


Levon Aronian gets some assistance from a chess junior

Aronian-Kramnik ½-½
Vladimir Kramnik used his trusty Berlin Defense against Levon Aronian, who has not shown us his best chess. This game was no exception, as Kramnik pushed throughout the entire game with his pair of bishops. But at the end Aronian was still solid enough to suffer just a little bit and end the game in a draw.


Vishy Anand is helped with 1.e4 by another chess kid...


... and then settles down to a game that ended in disaster


England's Michael Adams won and advanced to third place

Anand-Adams 0-1
Adams neutralized Vishy’s opening preparation without any problems, and even got the pair of bishops to start playing for the win. However with some precise play, and with the help of a powerful knight on d5, White was able to parry all the threats and obtain an equal position. When all eyes had turned away from the game, which would surely soon end in a draw, Anand blundered huge after reaching the time control, with 41. Bc4?? Adams thought forever, probably in disbelief, but eventually played the killer sequence and it was all over.

McShane-Jones 1-0
Gawain Jones is not a man known for his love of material balance. Shortly after the end of a very theoretical English Opening he sacrificed an exchange for a pawn, the pair of bishops and good compensation. However his handling of the position afterwards wasn’t optimal, and slowly but surely White was pushing Black back, until eventually he broke with e4 and his advantage was undisputed. A clever attack forced some simplifications in which Black only had two disconnected pawns for a piece, and McShane picked up the point.


Gawain Jones at minus four in his first Chess Classic

Replay all the games of the round

Standings (London scoring)

Standings (traditional scoring)

Pictures by Pascal Simon for ChessBase

Postgame analysis of the games by the players

Magnus Carlsen - Judit Polgar London Chess Classic 2012 Round 6

Vishy Anand - Mickey Adams London Chess Classic 2012 Round 6

Levon Aronian - Vladimir Kramnik London Chess Classic 2012 Round 6

Daniel King: Play of the day

Andrew Martin: Game of the Day (Anand vs Adams)

Live video coverage and commentary

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Pairings and results

Round 1: Saturday, Dec. 1st, 2012, 14:00h
Luke McShane
0-1
Magnus Carlsen
Levon Aronian
0-1
Hikaru Nakamura
Vladimir Kramnik
1-0
Judit Polgar
Gawain Jones
0-1
Michael Adams
Vishy Anand (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 2: Sunday, Dec. 2nd, 2012, 14:00h
Judit Polgar
½-½
Gawain Jones 
Hikaru Nakamura
0-1
Vladimir Kramnik
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
Levon Aronian
Vishy Anand
½-½
Luke McShane 
Michael Adams (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 3: Monday, Dec. 3rd, 2012, 14:00h
Levon Aronian
½-½
Vishy Anand
Vladimir Kramnik
½-½
Magnus Carlsen
Gawain Jones
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura
Michael Adams
1-0
Judit Polgar
Luke McShane (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 4: Tuesday, Dec. 4th, 2012, 16:00h
Hikaru Nakamura
½-½
Michael Adams
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
Gawain Jones
Vishy Anand
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Luke McShane
0-1
Levon Aronian
Judit Polgar (bye) – assisting commentary
Wednesday, Dec. 5th, 2012 Rest day
Round 5: Thursday, Dec. 6th, 2012, 14:00h
Vladimir Kramnik
1-0
Luke McShane
Gawain Jones
0-1
Vishy Anand
Michael Adams
0-1
Magnus Carlsen
Judit Polgar
0-1
Hikaru Nakamura
Levon Aronian (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 6: Friday, Dec. 7th, 2012, 14:00h
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
Judit Polgar
Vishy Anand
0-1
Michael Adams
Luke McShane
1-0
Gawain Jones 
Levon Aronian
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Hikaru Nakamura (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 7: Saturday, Dec. 8th, 2012, 14:00h
Gawain Jones 
  Levon Aronian
Michael Adams 
  Luke McShane
Judit Polgar
  Vishy Anand
Hikaru Nakamura
  Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 8: Sunday, Dec. 9th, 2012, 14:00h
Vishy Anand
  Hikaru Nakamura
Luke McShane
  Judit Polgar
Levon Aronian
  Michael Adams
Vladimir Kramnik
  Gawain Jones 
Magnus Carlsen (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 9: Monday, Dec. 10th, 2012, 13:00h
Michael Adams
  Vladimir Kramnik
Judit Polgar
  Levon Aronian 
Hikaru Nakamura
  Luke McShane
Magnus Carlsen
  Vishy Anand
Gawain Jones (bye) – assisting commentary

The games – except for rounds four and nine – start at 2 p.m. or 14:00h British time = 15:00h CET, 17:00h Moscow, 7:30 p.m. Chennai, 22:00h Beijing, 01:00 a.m. Melbourne, 03:00 a.m. Auckland, 6 a.m. San José, 9 a.m. New York. You can check your location here. Naturally the games will be covered live on the official web site (below) and on Playchess. The games of round four begin two hours later, those of the final round two hours earlier.

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