London Classic: Punditry in round one

by ChessBase
12/4/2011 – Half the fun of chess is predicting the outcome. Quite a few armchair pundits had predicted that Kramnik-Nakamura, Aronian-McShane, Adams-Anand would be draws, but that the top seed Magnus Carlsen would beat the bottom seed David Howell. If you had placed your money that way... you would have won. We bring you analysis by John Saunders of the two most interesting games.

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London Chess Classic 2011

The 2011 London Chess Classic is taking place in the Olympia Conference Centre from Saturday, December 3rd until Monday, December 12th, starting at 14:00h London time each day (final round 12:00h). Time controls are classical forty moves in two hours, then twenty moves in one hour and thirty minutes for the rest of the game. A win is counted as three points, a draw as one, and a loss zero. Tiebreaks: 1) number of wins, 2) number of wins with black, 3) result of the individual game between the tied players. In the unlikely event that there is still a tie then: 4) 2 x 15'+2" games, and if necessary 5) Armageddon game: 6'+2" vs 5'+2" with draw odds for black. If there is a tie involving more than two players then the Rapid games will be conducted as a double round all play all. The total prize fund is €160,000 before tax.

Round one – Spassky or Johnson?

Report and commentary by John Saunders

Round 1: Saturday, December 3, 2011
Vladimir Kramnik
½ ½
Hikaru Nakamura
Levon Aronian
½ ½
Luke McShane 
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
David Howell 
Michael Adams
½ ½
Vishy Anand 
Nigel Short (bye) – assisting commentary

The title of this report was inspired by Nigel Short’s quip in the commentary room. He happened to be speaking with his brother on the phone and told him that he was due to be playing Boris at the London Classic. His brother replied “Spassky or Johnson?” Good guess – but in fact it was a third famous Boris that Nigel was facing.

Our readers won’t need to be told who Boris Spassky is, but the non-Brits among you might need to be informed that Boris Johnson is our very colourful Mayor of London, who likes to waffle about wiff-waff. No, he doesn’t have a speech impediment, that’s an antique term for table tennis that he reintroduced to confuse people at an Olympic Games presentation some time ago. I’ve a feeling that the world may get to know our Mayor quite well during the 2012 London Olympics.

This year there are nine players in the London Chess Classic line-up. Even people with the most tenuous grasp of arithmetic will have worked out that “two into nine doesn’t go” and that one player therefore has to sit out each round. Except that they don’t – they are obliged to join the commentary team for the day. Nigel Short had the bye in the first and was the first to be co-opted onto the commentary team. Not only that, he was required to play a game of chess against the special guest, former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker. Of course, we are only a few miles up the road from the place where Boris first hurled himself round the court as an unseeded 17-year-old in 1985 and improbably won the title. I won’t dwell on the Short-Becker encounter - mainly because I couldn’t get near it for the hordes of spectators ringing the board, but I think we can take it that Nigel won because it wasn’t long before he was back in the VIP room looking quite happy, while Boris was nowhere to be seen.

Let’s have a look at some play. Half the fun of chess is playing at being a pundit. Quite a few armchair pundits on Internet forums had predicted that three of the games – Kramnik-Nakamura, Aronian-McShane, Adams-Anand – would be draws, and that the top seed Magnus Carlsen would beat the bottom seed David Howell, based on Carlsen’s recent good form in the Tal Memorial tournament in Moscow and David Howell’s poor form in the European Team Championship. If you had placed your money that way... you would have won. Big-time chess doesn’t always go with the form book or rating list, but today it most certainly did. So no Becker-style surprises so far.


Tennis star Boris Becker serving for Magnus in his game against David Howell

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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 Eleven years have wandered by since Vlad Kramnik popularised the Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez for Black players who are prepared to suffer for their half point. The fact that he did it against Garry Kasparov in a world title match helped. 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 0-0 6.0-0 Re8 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 Bf8 Earlier visitors to this position have kicked the bishop with 8...a6 9.Nbd2 d6 10.d4 exd4 11.Nxd4 Bd7 12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.Bd3 Be7 14.f4 Carlsen raises the stakes ever so slightly with this thrust. Qb8 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.e5!? [diag] David Howell admitted he had missed this idea, putting it down to lack of confidence and bad form. dxe5 17.Ne4 White loosens the position up for his pieces with the pawn sacrifice. The computer is not entirely convinced but Carlsen probably had an eye to Black's quite appalling clock situation. Qxb2 18.f5 The commentators were all for the head-on approach with 18.Qh5 but Carlsen decides to keep it positional. Although, in fact, he's still thinking about Qh5. 18...Red8 19.Bc4 Be8 20.Qh5 Rd6 21.Rab1 White decides against giving up the annoying knight for the static rook on d6. But the main point is that he doesn't want to give Black a recapture since they tend to use up too little time on the clock. Objectively, the position is imbalanced and nobody can claim an advantage. Qc2 22.Qg4 Kf8 23.h3 One of those sadistic little moves that can be played to taunt the opponent. "There - I do nothing. What's your plan?" Rad8 24.Kh2 Actually, it's not true to say that White is doing nothing - he's trying not to afford his opponent any checking opportunities, since they tend to be played fast and alleviate time pressure. Qa4 25.Rb4 Qa3 26.Rb7 R6d7 27.Qf3 Qa4 28.Qe2 Re7?! Inexorably, Black's time pressure is beginning to tell. This move proves ineffective and the loss of time in returning it to activity proves very unpleasant. 29.Nxf6 gxf6 30.Qe3 Red7 The bishop isn't en prise: 30...Qxc4?? 31.Qxh6+ Kg8 32.Rb4 and the black queen must surrender herself to stop the rook coming to g4. 31.Qc5+ Rd6 Going to the g-file is no better: 31...Kg8 32.Rf3 and now Rd6 (to prevent a queen invasion on f8 after Rg3+) 33.Rxc7 and White is well on the way to winning. 32.Rxc7 Qc2 Black is close to being lost but White now has a winning deflection. [diag] 33.Rc8! R8d7 33...Rxc8 34.Qxd6+ Kg7 35.Rf3 , followed by 36 Rf3+, is the winning plan. 34.Be6! This hefty spanner in the works comes close to concluding the game. Ke7 34...fxe6 35.fxe6 wins one of the rooks, and more. 35.Bxd7 Bxd7 36.Rh8 Qd3 37.Rf3 Peter Svidler had found the more accurate 37.Rf2 which seems to win. 37...Qd5 38.Qxa7 e4! Black defends tenaciously. This attack on the f3 rook is the reason why 37 Rf2 would have been more accurate. 39.Qb8 Qe5+ 40.Rg3 40.Rg3 Howell assumed it was mate and resigned, but it isn't, though Black is probably still lost in the long run. Qxf5 and there is no bone-crusher. White would have to win all over again with 41.a4 and play to promote the pawn. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2826Howell,D26331–02011C65London Chess Classic1


The winner in round one: Magnus Carlsen


Magnus Carlsen-David Howell, London Chess Classic 2011, Round 1 postgame analysis


Andrew Martin's Game of the Day: Round one Carlsen vs Howell

Vlad Kramnik and Hikaru Nakamura had a long, theoretical game in the Catalan, which featured known moves beyond move 20. Vlad complained that his opponent had surprised him with something he (Hikaru) hadn’t played before, springing a line on him which he hadn’t studied for a year. Life is so unfair sometimes. Still, the Russian did engineer an edge but a queenless middlegame ensued which the American held solidly.

Mickey Adams had white against Vishy Anand, who drew nine straight games in Moscow (hence most of the pundits going for that result). The players followed the line they played against each other last year and again the theory went beyond move 20. Magnus Carlsen later commented that Anand might have been better at some point thereafter. But soon the rooks came off and a drawn queen ending ensued. Commentator Daniel King cheekily reminded the world champion that he had now drawn ten games in a row and that a win counts for three points in London. Vishy was not at all put out and his reply was self-deprecating: “even if they had been using a 9-1-0 scoring system in Moscow, I would probably still have drawn all my games.”

Getting back to punditry, of course a few people thought that the in-form Aronian might well beat the largely inactive McShane. However, the other thing to take into account is Luke McShane’s form at Olympia. And he only lives down the road so he can enjoy the comforts of home, which must be a psychological advantage. However, inactivity seemed to play a part as the Londoner took ages over some fairly innocuous looking moves just out of the opening. The commentators didn’t give much for his chances, particularly the gap in time between the players ballooned to something approaching an hour, but Luke is one tough hombre...

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1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 a6 The Chebanenko Slav. It has been in vogue for the past few years. 5.Qb3 Aronian characterised this as "lousy" in his post-game comments but this is probably an exaggeration (and/or designed to throw future opponents off course). e6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.e3 0-0 8.Be2 h6 9.Bh4 dxc4 10.Qxc4 b5 11.Qd3 Nbd7 Both players later preferred 11...c5 immediately. 12.a4 b4 13.Bxf6 Here Black thought long and hard, though it is hard to see why. Nxf6 14.Ne4 c5!? Black doesn't want to stay passive and wants to get the c8 bishop onto the long diagonal. 15.Nxc5 Bxc5 16.dxc5 Bb7 17.Rc1 Rc8 18.Nd4 Rather than opting for an endgame, Aronian decides to raise the pressure against his time-troubled opponent. It's quite a risky decision but he is a confident tactician. In the commentary room, Nigel Short saw a similarity between Aronian and his great compatriot, Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian. The former world champion also favoured "turgid, safety-first" openings, said Nigel, but he was lightning fast at tactics when the occasion arose. Bxg2 19.Rg1 Bd5 20.f3 The black bishop is good on d5 so White decides it needs to be evicted. Qc7 21.Rg3 Rfd8 22.Qxa6 Ra8 23.Qb6 Qe5 24.Kf2 Nh5 25.c6! [diag] White decides to pin his chances on the advanced, passed c-pawn. Nxg3 26.hxg3 Qh5 27.Kg2 27.c7 Qh2+ 28.Ke1 Rdc8 29.a5 Qxg3+ 30.Kd2 h5 was a line the players looked at. "That's very blunt, I should have played like this" was Aronian's comment. He may have been thinking in terms of a good line for exploiting his opponent's time trouble than strict objectivity. 27...e5 28.e4 exd4 29.exd5 Re8! Black is now counting down to the time control at move 40, with only as many minutes as moves left, but he plays bravely in the face of those menacing passed pawns. 30.Qb5 One important here point is that after 30.Bc4 Black had d3 , renewing the threats of taking on d5 and a rook invasion on e2. Levon Aronian had thought he could play 31.Rf1 Re2+ 32.Rf2 but then noticed to his horror the move Re1‼ and Black wins. 30...Ra5! And here's a second point: a clever deflection. Now White has to be careful. 31.c7! Rxb5 32.Bxb5 Qg5! 33.c8Q Rxc8 34.Rxc8+ Kh7 35.d6 [diag] We've seen some tactical exchanges which would frighten the life out of most club players, but the elite grandmasters probably worked it all out quite easily. The d-pawn has a surefire path to the queening square so Black's only option is to go for perpetual check. Qd2+ 36.Kh3 Qd1 37.d7 f5 38.Kg2 Qd2+ 39.Kg1 Qe1+ 40.Kg2 Qd2+ 41.Kg1 Qe1+ 42.Kg2 A very good fightback from the brink by Luke McShane. Levon Aronian would probably feel he could have done better. ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Aronian,L2802McShane,L2671½–½2011D15London Chess Classic1

Schedule and results

Round 1: Saturday, December 3, 2011
Vladimir Kramnik
½ ½
Hikaru Nakamura
Levon Aronian
½ ½
Luke McShane 
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
David Howell 
Michael Adams
½ ½
Vishy Anand 
Nigel Short (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 2: Sunday, December 4, 2011
David Howell
  Michael Adams 
Luke McShane
  Magnus Carlsen
Hikaru Nakamura
  Levon Aronian
Nigel Short
  Vladimir Kramnik 
Vishy Anand (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 3: Monsay, December 5, 2011
Levon Aronian
  Nigel Short 
Magnus Carlsen
  Hikaru Nakamura
Michael Adams
  Luke McShane 
Vishy Anand
  David Howell 
Vladimir Kramnik (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 4: Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Magnus Carlsen
  Vladimir Kramnik 
Michael Adams
  Nigel Short 
Vishy Anand
  Hikaru Nakamura
David Howell
  Luke McShane 
Levon Aronian (bye) – assisting commentary
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 Rest day
Round 5: Thursday, December 8, 2011
Hikaru Nakamura
  David Howell 
Nigel Short
  Vishy Anand 
Vladimir Kramnik
  Michael Adams 
Levon Aronian
  Magnus Carlsen
Luke McShane (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 6: Friday, December 9, 2011
Michael Adams
  Levon Aronian
Vishy Anand
  Vladimir Kramnik 
David Howell
  Nigel Short 
Luke McShane
  Hikaru Nakamura
Magnus Carlsen (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 7: Saturday, December 10, 2011
Nigel Short 
  Luke McShane 
Vladimir Kramnik 
  David Howell 
Levon Aronian
  Vishy Anand 
Magnus Carlsen
  Michael Adams 
Hikaru Nakamura (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 8: Sunday, December 11, 2011
Vishy Anand
  Magnus Carlsen
David Howell
  Levon Aronian
Luke McShane
  Vladimir Kramnik 
Hikaru Nakamura
  Nigel Short 
Michael Adams (bye) – assisting commentary
Round 9: Monday, December 12, 2011
Luke McShane
  Vishy Anand 
Hikaru Nakamura
  Michael Adams 
Nigel Short
  Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik
  Levon Aronian
David Howell (bye) – assisting commentary

All games 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 (sorry Murray!), 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. Stand by for further details on Saturday. The games of the final round start two hours earlier.


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