
Closing ceremony at Simpson's
The 2012 London Chess Classic took place in the Olympia
Conference Centre from Saturday, December 1st until Monday, December 10th.
A win was counted as three points, a draw as one, and a loss zero. The tournament
was won by Norwegian star Magnus Carlsen with 18/8 (London scoring) or 6.5/8
(FIDE) with a performance of 2994, gaining him 13 rating points. With that Magnus
shattered the all-time record of Garry Kasparov, who had a rating of 2851 in
1999. In the January 1st FIDE ratings Magnus Carlsen will be listed at 2861.
In second place in the 2012 Chess Classic was former World Champion Vladimir
Kramnik with 16/18 or 6.0/8 FIDE, and a rating performance of 2937.

The event ended on Monday, December 10, a day on which the round started two
hours earlier than usual. This in order to allow the participants to attend
the Gala Dinner at Simpson's-in-the-Strand (above). This is one of London's
oldest traditional English restaurants, known as the Grand Cigar Divan when
it opened in 1828. It developed from a smoking room to a coffee house, and finally
achieved dual fame for its traditional English food, particularly roast meat,
and as the most important venue in Britain for chess in the nineteenth century.
In the 19th century Simpson's was the Wimbledon of chess. Almost all the top
players visited the restaurant, including Wilhelm Steinitz, Paul Morphy, Emanuel
Lasker, Johannes Zukertort (who had a fatal stroke while playing there), and
Siegbert Tarrasch. It was in Simpson's in 1851 that one of the world's great
games, the famous "Immortal Game", was played between Adolf Anderssen
and Lionel Kieseritzky.
World Champion Vishy Anand arriving at Simpson's with wife Aruna

Judit Polgar, the strongest female player in history, at the reception

GMs Levon Aronian, Luke McShane and Gawain Jones are ready to party

The superb Simpson's cuisine is enjoyed by the players and specially invited
guests

As the start tournament director Malcolm Pein awards the trophy to Magnus
Carlsen

The Norwegian superstar has achieved the highest rating in the history of
chess

A raffle for signed pictures, chessboards and books, with the proceeds going
to the charity
Chess in Schools. Katharine
Walsh, Head of Communications for Delancey, drew the winners
During the dinner a special simultaneous event is staged. Each table has a
chessboard, and the participants in the Chess Classic move around, one at a
time, to play against the guests at the table.

The reigning World Champion does the honors...

The former and 14th World Champion making the next moves (yes, that is Daniel
King on the right – the Classic players had stiff GM opposition on most
tables)

Michael ("Mickey") Adams at one of the boards...

Followed soon by Levon Aronian, who makes the next move

Hikaru Nakamura of the US is followed by...

... the tournament winner Magnus Carlsen

English GM Gawain Jones is followed a few moves later by...

Luke McShane, with Magnus in the background ready to take up any slack
The above pictures – and many others in our
reports on the LCC 2012 – were taken by Ray Morris-Hill, a London
based professional photographer specialising in Chess, Portraits, Sports, Fashion
and Wildlife. He has published pictures in The Times, The Guardian, "Коммерсантъ",
Digital Photographer, Esquire, Time Out, Drapers, 220 Triathlon, Peón de Rey,
Chess Life, British Chess Magazine and of course, Chess and www.chessbase.com.
His main career has been as a marketing consultant for home shopping companies
in the UK. However, in the last three years, as his photography business has
grown rapidly, more of his time has been taken up behind the camera. "I have
been fortunate to combine my camera skills with my love of chess," he says.
"I play Board one for Battersea Chess Club in the London League Division Two,
and my latest FIDE rating is 2005.

Photographer Ray Morris-Hill, whose works you can find here
Ray's photos are taken with Nikon Digital SLR cameras, specifically the D3S
and D300 bodies with an array of Nikon Professional lenses. You can contact
him at ray@rmhphoto.eu for further information.

GM Jonathan Rowson on the Close of the London Chess Classic
Congratulations to Tournament Director Malcolm Pein for another wonderfully
organised buzz-fest at The London Chess Classic. The inclusive and accessible
event’s highlight was Norway’s Magnus Carlsen becoming the highest
rated player of all time, eclipsing 2860 and sniffing out the stratospheric
2900. For those who don’t know the chess rating system, let’s just
say that a celebrated Tina Turner lyric comes to mind.

Scottish GM Jonathan Rowson playing in the London Classic Open
Your scribe didn’t disgrace himself in the open tournament, but my most
memorable game was played at the Closing Dinner at The Simpson's in the Strand
Divan, the historic chess venue of ‘The Immortal Game’ between Anderssen
and Kieseritzky in 1851.
My table companions were Jonathan Hinton, Russell Picot, Chris Clark, Olivia
Gregory, Natasha Reagan and Katherine Walsh, plentiful wine and good food, including
a lip-licking lobster bisque.
Our opponents were Elite Grandmasters from the Classic, playing several boards
throughout the cosy and animated room simultaneously. They arrived at our table
in no particular order or tempo, usually with a smile on their face, and often
with a glass in their hand. Even so, I felt the game, in which we went from
three pawns up to three pawns down, had a romantic quality befitting of the
venue.

[Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "2012.12.10"] [Round "?"] [White "Chess Classic
Elite"] [Black "Table Sixteen"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C21"] [Annotator "Rowson,Jonathan"]
[PlyCount "84"] 1. e4 e5 2. d4 $5 ({Carlsen thwarts our cunning plan to play
the Elephant gambit after} 2. Nf3 d5 $6 {I told you, he's good.}) 2... exd4
3. c3 {Nakamura} dxc3 4. Bc4 $5 {McShane} cxb2 5. Bxb2 d6 6. Qb3 Qd7 7. Nc3
Nc6 8. Nf3 Na5 9. Qb4 Nxc4 10. Qxc4 b6 11. e5 $1 {Aronian} Bb7 12. O-O-O $5
{Nakamura. Adams later joked that it was standard practice for White to castle
queenside in the Danish Gambit.} O-O-O 13. Nb5 d5 14. Qb3 (14. e6 $5 dxc4 $6
15. Nxa7+ Kb8 16. Rxd7 $1) 14... Kb8 15. e6 fxe6 $6 16. Ne5 Qe8 17. Kb1 Nf6
18. Rc1 Bd6 19. f3 $1 {Anand. Despite being three pawns down, Vishy still found
value in controlling the e4 square. I joked with the table that this was indicative
of how a world champion thinks, but Vishy smiled and shot back: "Actually this
is how one of the few people in the room who hasn't been drinking heavily thinks"...}
Nd7 20. Qa4 a5 21. Nxd6 cxd6 22. Nc6+ Ka8 $2 (22... Bxc6 23. Qxc6 Ka7 {is fine,
but felt scary.}) 23. Nxd8 Qxd8 24. Ka1 $5 {Adams. Mickey later wished the king
was back on b1 to have another easy decision to make.} Nc5 $6 {I advised against
this loss of flexibility.} 25. Qg4 e5 26. Rhd1 Qe7 27. f4 d4 28. fxe5 dxe5 29.
Qg3 (29. Ba3 $5) 29... Qe6 $2 {To avoid Ba3.} 30. Re1 $1 {Adams.} Ne4 $2 (30...
Re8 $1 31. Bxd4 $2 Ne4 $1) 31. Qxg7 Rg8 32. Qxh7 Nf6 (32... Qg6 $1) 33. Qc7
{We lost two pawns for nothing, morale was hit, and a blunder followed: } Be4
$2 34. Rxe4 $1 {(Jones) We saw this, but didn't have time to figure it out.}
Nxe4 35. Rc6 Qd5 36. Rxb6 Nc5 37. Rc6 {Aronian reached to play 37.Rb5, but I
stayed his hand, and as a gesture of goodwill he played something only slightly
less decisive.} Qd8 $1 {Tenacious, by Russell Picot.} 38. Qxd8+ $2 Rxd8 39.
Rxc5 d3 40. Bc3 d2 41. Bxd2 Rxd2 42. Rxa5+ Kb7 {Here we asked the proximate
Kramnik about the theoretical status of the ending with two extra rook pawns
after 43.Rxe5 Rxg2. "Good question, it's not clear...let's see..." He briefly
checked it was best play, said it should be winning and suggested advancing
the h-pawn to h5, the a-pawn to a5 and bringing the king to the kingside. Awestruck,
we didn't offer resistance, but Carlsen came by (it sounds like a dream...)
and wondered what happens if Black just goes "check, check check"...and White
struggles to escape with the king without losing a pawn. Alas, in the midst
of all this fun, the result was not established, but in the spirit of old gentleman's
club, we'll graciously award a victory to the World Elite.} 1-0
The original column appeared in the Saturday (December 15,
2012) print edition of The Herald Scotland.
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