London Classic Rd1: Carlsen wins, McShane escapes Aronian
12/3/2011 – At the start of this year's Classic it was Magnus Carlsen who chalked up a win with a superb attack against David Howell, while Luke McShane pulled off a perpetual when he appeared lost to Aronian. The guest of honour on this first day followed the action with intense interest and actually played two games against the resting Nigel Short. Wimbledon champion Boris Becker, who stole the show.
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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.
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 |
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| 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
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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. |
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