London Classic Rd1: Carlsen wins, McShane escapes Aronian

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.

Round one

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 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)

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)

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

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