
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.
There are nine players, including the four top-ranked (and only 2800+ rated)
players in the world. The player rested during each round will provide commentary
on the games in progress.
Name |
Title |
Country |
Rating |
W-rank |
Born |
Carlsen, Magnus |
Super-Grandmaster |
NOR |
2826 |
1 |
30.11.1990 |
Anand, Viswanathan |
World Champion |
IND |
2811 |
2 |
11.12.1969 |
Aronian, Levon |
Super-Grandmaster |
ARM |
2802 |
3 |
06.10.1982 |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
Ex-World Champion |
RUS |
2800 |
4 |
25.06.1975 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
Super-Grandmaster |
USA |
2758 |
10 |
09.12.1987 |
Adams, Michael |
Super-Grandmaster |
ENG |
2734 |
17 |
17.11.1971 |
Short, Nigel |
Ex-World Champion challenger |
ENG |
2698 |
48 |
01.06.1965 |
McShane, Luke |
Grandmaster |
ENG |
2671 |
74 |
07.01.1984 |
Howell, David |
Grandmaster |
ENG |
2633 |
139 |
14.11.1990 |
Round one
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 |
Game analysis and commentary to follow in a separate report...
Pictorial report from day one in London
Pictures by Frederic Friedel, John Saunders, Ray Morris-Hill
The first round of the Chess Classic saw a very special guest: the tennis star
Boris Becker, six-time Grand Slam singles champion, Olympic gold medalist, and
the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon, at the age
of 17. Becker is an enthusiastic chess player, as you shall see in the rest
of this report.

Before the start of the round: Becker chats with World Champion Vishy Anand...

... and then, after instructions from Magnus, executes the first move in
the Carlsen-
Howell game (Becker: "1.e4 – that's exactly what I would have played
myself!")

The Indian High Commissioner Rajesh N. Prasad officiates in the game Adams-Anand

Nigel Short, Lawrence Trent and Steven Gordon doing live commentary for
the audience
in London, and for viewers all over the world on the official web site and on
Playchess

Boris Becker follows the commentary of the trio, and then...

... is led to a show-down game against Nigel Short (Becker is
suffering a leg injury sustained during a tennis match)

Boris and Nigel – the game is recorded by TV cameras and a crowd of
press photographers
Becker,B - Short,N [C63]
LCC 2011, 04.12.2011
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.exf5 e4 6.Ne5 Bxf5 7.0-0 Qd4 8.Qh5+
g6 9.Nxg6 hxg6 10.Qe2 Bd6 11.g3 0-0-0 12.c3 Qd5 13.f4 Bc5+ 14.d4 exd3+ 15.Qf2
Bh3 16.Qxc5 Qg2# 0-1

Afterwards in the VIP room Boris gets personal commentary from Nigel and
Malcolm Pein

The game is being followed with Fritz and projected on a big screen

Nigel grabs one of Boris' crutches and uses it as a pointer (to accurately
predict Anand's next move)

Boris and Nigel contemplate in a very interesting pose

Nigel makes a very subtle point as to what is happening in the game...

... and then explains the general concepts of chess (with Frederic Friedel
listening in)

Boris has some very pertinent questions

At some stage Becker asked if Nigel would give him "revenge".
Sure thing – we set
up a board and the two started a second, private game in the VIP room

The second game turns into a very intense encounter, lasting for over an
hour

Friedel is hoping for an upset win by the German star, who is holding up quite
well

"You had a pawn less in a double rook ending," Nigel tells Boris.
"If you hadn't
swapped the rooks, or kept at least one, you would have had drawing chances!"

Elsewhere GMs Jonathan Speelman, John Nunn and journalist Dominic Lawson
follow the games

Tara MacGowran, wife
of Mickey Adams, with Arianne Caoili, girlfriend of Lev Aronian

At the end of the round Tara turns up in Star Trek garb and, with
the obligatory tricorder in hand, is off to a fancy dress party
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.
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