London Classic R3: Carlsen beats Nakamura; McShane is second

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 then 5) an 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 three

It was hard to ask for a more exciting round, and the Brits had every reason to be pleased. The live commentary, available with video at the official site, or retransmitted through Playchess, has also been unusually fun, with lively banter from the key host IM/GM Lawrence Trent (the video labels him one or the other) with a wide assortment of players. In the first round, GM Daniel King co-hosted with him, but alternately he has brought in the opinions of others playing in the parallel FIDE event such as GM Gawaine Jones, GM Stuart Conquest, and several others.

Basic live commentary provided by GM Chris Ward and IM Lawrence Trent

Finally, the absolute cherry on top: each round the player who is with a bye steps in when the games are well underway, and liberally comments on all the positions. Today it was Kramnik's turn, and you could tell that even Trent was awed by this unique opportunity. The great player also answered a variety of questions, and one interesting reply was whom he saw as the successor to his generation dominated by himself, Anand, and Topalov. The obvious name was Magnus Carlsen, but who else? Karjakin? Nakamura? Another rising player such as Giri perhaps? In his opinion, Aronian is the player he sees vying with Carlsen for the top spot in the years to come.

Vladimir Kramnik, who has a bye in round three, assists with the commentary

When he arrived on stage, there was an animated discussion on whether David Howell really had winning chances against Anand, and when Kramnik was shown the position, his grimace showed he agreed. He did however note that the Englishman was taking too long and didn't seem to be making proper adjustments to the fact that here there is no increment of any kind. His words turned out to be prophetic as imprecisions allowed Anand to get back in and save the game.

 
The post-mortem with Vishy Anand and David Howell

Levon Aronian came alone to the post-mortem after Nigel Short's disheartening defeat and gave his usual friendly and objective commentary. While he never experienced any genuine trouble, exploiting Short's extravagant setup (per Aronian) required extremely precise play, and a serious mistake threw his edge away though the English player failed to make the most of it. Even the 'won' endgame presented subtle traps White had to sidestep, lines an engine doesn't mention as it is designed to tell you why the best moves are best, not why the second best move is not.

Levon Aronian in round three, playing against...

... the so far luckless Nigel Short

When asked about the organization, Aronian was very positive, explaining that it far exceeded his expectations, and he felt everything was beautiful and top-notch.

 
Levon Aronian gives detailed analysis and answers other questions

The biggest clash of the round was between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, both of whom had 1.5/2 (or 4.0/6 in the London scoring), and which traditionally leads to spectacular battles with cutthroat chess. This time was no exception, and while the American seemed to be holding his own for quite some time, it was a sign of the potential vulnerability of his position that in a handful of moves his king was wide open, and the position was lost. Carlsen opined that Black was indeed fine, but the position was far easier to play as White than as Black.

Carlsen-Nakamura did not disappoint, and the players share what they saw

Luke McShane in round three, about to chalk up his first win

Michael Adams at the start of a game that ended badly for him

The final game was Luke McShane's victory over Michael Adams after a speculative bishop sacrifice against Adams's king. Upon seeing it, Kramnik said he had been analyzing it and had come to the conclusion it was a draw at best, with a perpetual, since the attack was easily staved off, however things unfolded differently and Luke's will to win prevailed in the end.

Standings after three rounds (London scoring)

Standings after three rounds (traditional scoring)

Schedule and results

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 Official tournament site All games in PGN All ChessBase reports on the Chess Classic 2011 (+ 2010 and 2009) 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

• Official tournament site
• All ChessBase reports on the Chess Classic 2011
• All ChessBase reports from 2010 and from 2009