
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 two
Round 2:
Sunday, December 4, 2011 |
David Howell |
½ ½ |
Michael Adams |
Luke McShane |
½ ½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
Hikaru Nakamura |
1-0 |
Levon Aronian |
Nigel Short |
0-1 |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Vishy Anand (bye) – assisting
commentary |

Michael Adams and Luke McShane wait for the start of round one

The first move in McShane-Carlsen is made by Samir Samadov, 9 (see below)

Round two of the London Chess Classic 2011 under way

What are the others playing? At the start everyone keeps checking on the
big displays

Magnus Carlsen, the world's number one, facing....

"Britain's strongest amateur" Luke McShane

GM Hikaru Nakamura, USA, beating...

... the world's number three, Levon Aronian from Armenia

Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik defeated...

... former World Championship Challenger Nigel Short
Photos by Ray
Morris-Hill and John Saunders
Impressions from the VIP room
By Frederic Friedel

Chess teacher Sabrina Chevannes teaching Mila...

...and her brother Liam the rules of the game
The two above are twins and learnt the moves of the game during round one.
Now the have persuaded their father to keep bringing them to the Chess Festival
to get more of the same – chess enthusiasm in its purest form.

Family chess lessons for UCL Professor
of Electical Engineering Polina Bayvel and her son Peter. Polina specialises
in fibre optics and is, in her own words, "trying to redefine the Shannon
Limit and maximise bandwidth in data transmission". In the interest
of HD videos on the Internet we wish her all success.

Playing against his father, Anatoly Zayats, professor of physics at Kings

The kids watch the big boy play: IM Ali Mortasavi vs Vishy Anand

Giving Ali a tough time... Samir Samadov plays one-minute bullet against the
IM
Samir Samadov is nine years old, was born in Baku, started playing chess club
in the "Kasparov Chess Club" in Baku. The family moved to Atherton
in Greater Manchester, where Samir went to the St. Philips Church of England
Primary School, the same that Nigel Short attended when he was a child. Now
Samir goes to Richmond Junior Chess Club in London and plays chess at the Wallace
Chess Club and in Holland Park. He speaks English as his first language, and
Russian "not very well." Samir has had to oversome some very serious
health problems and is one of the bravest, most spirited youngsters we have
encountered in a long while.

GM Michael Stean, Robert Skidelsky and Nigel Short
Robert Jacob Alexander, Baron Skidelsky is a British economic historian of
Russian origin. He is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University
of Warwick, England and the author of an award-winning major three volume biography
of John Maynard Keynes. We got an extremely valuable (an illuminating) lecture
on the current world economic situation from this leading expert in his field.
You should read some of his articles here.
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 |
½ ½ |
Michael Adams |
Luke McShane |
½ ½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
Hikaru Nakamura |
1-0 |
Levon Aronian |
Nigel Short |
0-1 |
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.
Links
The games are being 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 and get
immediate access. Or you can get our latest Fritz
13 program, which includes six months free premium membership to Playchess. |
|
Links