London Chess Classic, Rd. 6: Simply Fantastic
12/15/2016 – In a round with a lot of exciting chess Fabiano Caruana played the most brilliant game by defeating Hikaru Nakamura with a positional queen sacrifice. Wesley So crushed Veselin Topalov with a violent kingside attack and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave countered Levon Aronian's optimistic winning attempts. Anish Giri chased Vishy Anand's king across the board but had to content himself with a draw. Vladimir Kramnik and Michael Adams played a relatively sober draw. Report and games.
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London Chess Classic 2016, Rd. 6
Round 6, Fabiano Caruana - Hikaru Nakamura / Notes by Michal Krasenkow
Michal Krasenkow's commentary will also be in the next ChessBase Magazine #176, together with all the games of the London Chess Classic, a lot of them annotated - and much more. ChessBase Magazine #175, the current issue, also contains a wealth of material and annotated games by Vladimir Kramnik, Wesley So, David Navara, Pavel Eljanov, Simon Williams, Daniel King any many other exclusive authors. Have a look!
The Highlights of round 6 by Daniel King
Photos: Lennart Ootes
Round 6 was amazing. After the rest day the players did not appear rested and calm but charged with energy.
This #LondonChess Classic is like a protest against the style of the World Championship.
— Jonathan Tisdall (@GMjtis) 15. Dezember 2016
Veselin Topalov-Wesley So
To say Topalov is not in good shape in London is an understatement. Topalov drew one of his first five games and lost four. Wesley So, however, is in splendid shape and leads the tournament.
Topalov vs So
Topalov had White and tried an Italian but So was unimpressed and improved a previous game these two had played. So pushed his kingside pawns forward to gain space but a few moves later still castled kingside and soon mounted a strong attack against White's king. This culminated in a violent mating attack and after 27 moves it was game over.
Topalov is bleeding Elo-points in London and is currently no longer among the top 20
Maxime Vachier Lagrave-Levon Aronian
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian also followed the trend and played an Italian game. After the topical 6.a4 - which had been played twice in the World Championship match between Carlsen and Karjakin - Aronian countered with 6...a5, an idea only a few players have tried before. The game quickly became tense. Aronian pushed in the centre which made Vachier-Lagrave sacrifice a piece which led to a position in which he had queen, rook and bishop against queen and two rooks.
Aronian pushed too hard
Objectively the position was perhaps equal but Aronian wanted to win at all costs. And while he tried to attack the white king with his major pieces Vachier-Lagrave took all the black pawns on the queenside - and after Aronian's attack came to a halt the white pawns on the queenside carried the day.
Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave scores a first victory in this event after Aronian overpressed a pleasant position.
— London Chess Classic (@london_chess) 15. Dezember 2016
Photo: @LennartOotes pic.twitter.com/QG9ksfCinz
Fabiano Caruana-Hikaru Nakamura
Fabiano Caruana must have been inspired by the spirit of Rashid Nezhmetdinov, who was born exactly 104 years ago, on December 15, 1912; how else to explain Caruana's queen sacrifice on f6?
Help from above?
In one of his brilliancies the great tactician Nezhmetdinov once sacrificed a queen on f6 for two minor pieces. And this is what Caruana did today in a sharp line of the Najdorf:
Caruana took on f6 and got two knights and a very strong initiative for his queen.
Maurice Ashley explains what is going on
A good choice which the engines fully supported. Black had trouble to find a safe place for his queen but even more trouble to find a safe place for his king. Caruana attacked with powerful patience and Nakamura found no defense. After this impressive victory Caruana is only about ten points behind Carlsen in live-ratings.
A brilliant win by Caruana
Vishy Anand-Anish Giri
Vishy Anand and Anish Giri also debated the pros and cons of the Sicilian. The game began with a Najdorf but after Anand's 6.h3 it transposed into a Keres Attack in the Scheveningen. Anand castled queenside, Giri came up with a novelty (15...Nc5) and attacked White's king. Anand countered by sacrificing his knight on b5. Giri returned the compliment with a sacrifice of his own which made White's king run from the queenside to seek shelter on the kingside. The black pieces followed closely but Black could not find a mate and had to agree to repetition of moves and a draw.
Anish Giri might have a good chance
Vladimir Kramnik-Michael Adams
Currently Kramnik abstains from theoretical opening discussions and prefers simple solid lines. Today he chose the Zukertort-System 1.d4, 2.Nf3, 3.e3. Adams opted for symmetry and after some minor tactical skirmishes the players forced a draw with a perpetual.
A draw between Kramnik and Adams concludes the shortest yet most thrilling round of the tournament! #LondonChess
— London Chess Classic (@london_chess) 15. Dezember 2016
Photo: @LennartOotes pic.twitter.com/rDL2ZiWqMP
Results of round 6
| Board | Title | Name | Country | ELO | Res. | Title | Name | Country | ELO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Veselin Topalov |
|
2760 | 0 - 1 | GM | Wesley So |
|
2794 |
| 2 | GM | Vladimir Kramnik |
|
2809 | ½ - ½ | GM | Michael Adams |
|
2748 |
| 3 | GM | Fabiano Caruana |
|
2823 | 1 - 0 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura |
|
2779 |
| 4 | GM | Viswanathan Anand |
|
2779 | ½ - ½ | GM | Anish Giri |
|
2771 |
| 5 | GM | Maxime Vachier Lagrave |
|
2804 | 1 - 0 | GM | Levon Aronian |
|
2785 |
Games - Rounds 1 to 6
Standings after six rounds
| Rg. | Title | Name | Country | ELO | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts | Perf. | TB |
| 1 | GM | Wesley So |
|
2794 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4.5 / 6 | 2961 | |||||
| 2 | GM | Fabiano Caruana |
|
2823 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4.0 / 6 | 2906 | |||||
| 3 | GM | Vladimir Kramnik |
|
2809 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 3.5 / 6 | 2841 | |||||
| 4 | GM | Levon Aronian |
|
2785 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 3.0 / 6 | 2791 | 10.00 | ||||
| 5 | GM | Viswanathan Anand |
|
2779 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 3.0 / 6 | 2786 | 10.00 | ||||
| 6 | GM | Anish Giri |
|
2771 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3.0 / 6 | 2781 | 9.50 | ||||
| 7 | GM | Maxime Vachier Lagrave |
|
2804 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 3.0 / 6 | 2788 | 8.50 | ||||
| 8 | GM | Hikaru Nakamura |
|
2779 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 3.0 / 6 | 2789 | 6.75 | ||||
| 9 | GM | Michael Adams |
|
2748 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 2.5 / 6 | 2725 | |||||
| 10 | GM | Veselin Topalov |
|
2760 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0.5 / 6 | 2377 |
Live video round 6
Discussion and Feedback
Join the public discussion or submit your feedback to the editors
Great round; great games! I thank the players for such lively and, as Johannes aptly put it, simply fastastic chess...
It seems Nakamura's 15... b4 wasn't a novelty and even 21 Nf5 had already been played in a correspondence game Nadeev(2426)-Janisch(2335) 1-0 from 2015.
What engines is GM Krasenkow is using?? Within 90 seconds, Komodo, Houdini & Stockfish see that 21.Nf5!! is advantageous. Furthermore, they quickly finger Nakamura's novelty, 15...b4?, as a mistake. Finally, the annotator fails to mention that after 15...Ne5 16.Qxf4 Nexg4 17.Bxg4 e5 18.Nd5 Nxd5 19.Qf3 Bxg4 20.Qxg4 Nf6 21.Qf3, Black equalizes with 21...Rc8, as in Nekhaev-Yamaliev : correspondence, ICCF 2013.
Right the Caruana game would be more impressive but it was home prep. And Fabi missed the prettiest line 23...Nxd6. And besides that Naka did not seem to put up the most stubborn resistance for example 25... Rxb4, mentioned by Daniel king
Amazing round 6 at LCC. Maybe more excitement on the last remaining 3 rounds. Notice that So will be facing 3 of the top 5 players on his last round, specifically Kramnik, Caruana and France's numero uno Vachier-Lagrave. All of them inside current FIDE top 5
Nakamura defeated by his fellow country men( So and Caruana), while Topalov continued giving... as the spirit of Christmas.
I loved the little jokes between Anand and Giri today. Giri: "When will Anand finally retire?" Anand: "When will Giri finally win a game?" hehe all in good fun as well.
Well played by faby & wesley..
another loss for topa... aaargh! fortunately, he is playing giri in next round :)
To compare Caruana's play to Nezhmetdinov must be a joke because that was all home-cooked.
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