London Classic: A tepid start
12/4/2017 – If the first round looked like a car left in neutral, then round two was barely in second gear. Karjakin and Carlsen left their battles for another time, while So failed to make the most of a strange opening choice by Nepo. The game of the day was the sharp as nails Sicilian Dragon between Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Hikaru Nakamura, giving the audience something to cheer for. Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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All games drawn
A soporific feel at the start of the London Classic lingers on. Same as in the opening round Friday, all five games today were drawn, and, honestly, not all of them were worth the price of admission.
I don't know how Karjakin feels about playing Carlsen these days. Only one year removed from their face-to-face titanic battle in New York, Sergey doesn't seem to have any momentum on his side. Three times they met in classical chess tournaments in 2017, and the score is +2=1 in favor of Magnus.
Today the World Champion played the bold g7-g5 on the black side of the Italian Game, but even that did not make the former challenger willing to, well, challenge. Queens got traded early, and then Karjakin neglected his last chance to make something happen by pushing f2-f4. A listless performance by Sergey, who hasn't really done anything in 2017 to make his fans believe he'll return to play Magnus again.
Sergey Karjakin hopes to be the next Challenger for Carlsen, but if so, he kept his ambitions in check in this game | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Back in 1966, Spassky lost a World Championship Match to Petrosian, when many felt he was ready to be crowned. Boris did come back by winning the Candidates matches again three years later, and then he beat Petrosian as well. Not to be forgotten, however, that Spassky appeared to be a hungry player right after the first match, as he famously won the 2nd Piatigorsky Cup, 1966 ahead of Fischer and all others.
There isn't much to say about Aronian's tournament yet. He had two Blacks at the start, and did what he was supposed to do, which is to not lose. Levon's Ruy Lopez appears to be holding up well. Both Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana tried the line from a successful game Vachier-Lagrave played against Aronian in the 2017 World Cup. The position, however, appears to be too short of resources to cause Black any real pain. Levon is ready to enter this line again and again. He will face Sergey Karjakin in round three with white.
Levon Aronian's first two games were with black, so a draw was nothing to be upset about | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Anand-Adams was another Anti-Berlin, leading to yet another symmetrical pawn structure where Vishy may have given more than a token effort, but it didn't change the outcome of the game. Such games have become a bit too common to my taste, but unless White finds some other ideas, I cannot blame Black for playing for the result.
This brings to mind the old talk of changing the scoring system in favor of Black, say .4-.6 or some such imbalance, in an attempt to spice up the game. In my opinion, the effect could be quite opposite. In modern chess, it is Black who chooses the opening, and giving him an extra incentive to make a draw would be counterproductive.
Perhaps, a more radical measure, such as choosing openings randomly, should come into consideration. Imagine, you come to the game, and the computer tells you you must play the Scandinavian today!
It was an uneventful round in terms of results, but some players clearly tried harder than others | Photo: Lennart Ootes
MVL vs Nakamura was without question the highlight of the round. Now to the games that could have ended decisively. Lots of credit goes to Nakamura for venturing into the Dragon's Den today. Hikaru appears to be the one rocking the boat in London in the early going. It might seem a thankless task, as he was skirting disaster again today, but his fans are grateful.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 1/2-1/2 Hikaru Nakamura (Annotated by GM Alex Yermolinsky)
The Sicilian Dragon Vol. 1: Main Line with 9.Bc4
Volume one of the DVD deals with 9.Bc4, White's sharpest option, and shows how Black can counter this ambitious try by White with the main lines of the Soltis variation (12.h5), which was played by Magnus Carlsen regularly as well.
Hikaru Nakamura: "I completely misevaluated this endgame..."
Vachier-Lagrave: "The position is a complete mess and of course if you don't know everything exactly you have to spend a lot of time to navigate the complications..."
Nakamura discusses the game with Maurice Ashley | Saint Louis Chess Club on YouTube
Wesley So continues to baffle his fans. What more could today's opponent, Nepomniachtchi, do than open the game with the Old Benoni, the opening that has been all but discarded decades ago? Wesley was pretty much served a great positional advantage on a silver platter at the start of the game. Yet, he wasn't able to capitalize and went for the unforced move repetition already on move 24.
Wesley So 1/2-1/2 Ian Nepomniachtchi (Annotated by GM Alex Yermolinsky)
The Czech Benoni has never quite made it to the top of the charts as a reply to 1 d4. Perhaps it‘s the very nature of blocked central positions which put people off. Thus after 1. d4 Sf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e5 the first impression is that the Black position could become rather passive. However, players of the calibre of Nisipeanu, Ivan Sokolov, Milidanovic have been taking a fresh look at the opening and using the Czech Benoni with success.
In the last few months, Wesley So has struggled to recover the form he displayed in 2016. Every player has a dry streak, and it seems this has been his.
Wesley So, early in Round 2 | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Let's see now how the players are going to fare in a 7-round tournament. Time to leave the starting gates!
Round 2 commentary
Standings
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | |
| 1 | GM | Carlsen Magnus | 2837 | 1,0 | 0,0 |
| GM | Aronian Levon | 2805 | 1,0 | 0,0 | |
| GM | Caruana Fabiano | 2799 | 1,0 | 0,0 | |
| GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | 2789 | 1,0 | 0,0 | |
| GM | So Wesley | 2788 | 1,0 | 0,0 | |
| GM | Anand Viswanathan | 2782 | 1,0 | 0,0 | |
| GM | Nakamura Hikaru | 2781 | 1,0 | 0,0 | |
| GM | Karjakin Sergey | 2760 | 1,0 | 0,0 | |
| GM | Nepomniachtchi Ian | 2729 | 1,0 | 0,0 | |
| GM | Adams Michael | 2715 | 1,0 | 0,0 |
All games
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Discussion and Feedback
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Saving prep is just a ready made excuse for poor play.
Modern vs Old. OK, let me elaborate a bit.
In the pre-computer times most players had a narrow opening repertoire. If they played a Sicilian they would play it against anyone at any time. The had to score a lot of points against weaker opposition to succeed.
Modern chess is all about preparation for a particular opponent. Most, if not all, Grandmasters of today can play more than one defense with Black against both 1.e4 and 1.d4. It's their choice what to play in a given situation.
In short-field round-robin events draw with Black is a good result, therefore they play the Berlin more often than a Modern Defense.
In the pre-computer times most players had a narrow opening repertoire. If they played a Sicilian they would play it against anyone at any time. The had to score a lot of points against weaker opposition to succeed.
Modern chess is all about preparation for a particular opponent. Most, if not all, Grandmasters of today can play more than one defense with Black against both 1.e4 and 1.d4. It's their choice what to play in a given situation.
In short-field round-robin events draw with Black is a good result, therefore they play the Berlin more often than a Modern Defense.
@exe "In modern chess" means we name - in fact - openings after Black's reply hence it is customary nowdays - and certainly more correct - to talk about "defence" instead of "opening".
@ex0, your indignation is misplaced. While white certainly gives black a list of choices after move one, black then does, indeed, choose the specific opening.
That photo of Aronian! Nice one, Lennart.
"In modern chess, it is Black who chooses the opening"
What?
How does black choose anything when white moves first? If i play 1.d4, how can black choose to play sicilian? IE black can't, hence black chooses nothing. White goes first and obviously chooses the opening. Unless you're going by some retarded naming convention whereas an opening can only be named after black responds and white can never 'choose' the opening, even if he does(ie ruy lopez after white's 3.Bb5)
Also curious why 'modern' is mentioned, and what difference 'modern chess' has with 'old school' chess.. did white choose the opening in old school chess? What happened in 'modern chess' that allowed black to 'choose the opening'?
Lastly, do you guys think that the candidates players are saving their novelties for the candidates? What real incentive is there for them to rip them out for this tournament(apart from the prizemoney etc, but of course the candidates + world championship is much more important).
There is 4 candidates players here(So, Aronian, Karjakin, Caruana), not including Carlsen of course, so what do you guys think? Is it possible at least? I know if it was me, i would certainly think about it.. i might save it for Carlsen even, but yeah. Probably not, since even just making it to the world championship to challenge Carlsen will net you half a million at least guaranteed.. haha.
How much does the winner of this get, and how much 2nd/3rd get? I just wanna see what the incentives are, since yeah. THe whole grand prix cycle thing is over yeah? That was just mainly to decide who made it to candidates, no? So this is like the final tourney that no one cares about, or does this tournament/leg in the grand prix mean something that i'm not aware of? Can anyone educate me on the error of my ways? heh heh
Thanks in advance.
What?
How does black choose anything when white moves first? If i play 1.d4, how can black choose to play sicilian? IE black can't, hence black chooses nothing. White goes first and obviously chooses the opening. Unless you're going by some retarded naming convention whereas an opening can only be named after black responds and white can never 'choose' the opening, even if he does(ie ruy lopez after white's 3.Bb5)
Also curious why 'modern' is mentioned, and what difference 'modern chess' has with 'old school' chess.. did white choose the opening in old school chess? What happened in 'modern chess' that allowed black to 'choose the opening'?
Lastly, do you guys think that the candidates players are saving their novelties for the candidates? What real incentive is there for them to rip them out for this tournament(apart from the prizemoney etc, but of course the candidates + world championship is much more important).
There is 4 candidates players here(So, Aronian, Karjakin, Caruana), not including Carlsen of course, so what do you guys think? Is it possible at least? I know if it was me, i would certainly think about it.. i might save it for Carlsen even, but yeah. Probably not, since even just making it to the world championship to challenge Carlsen will net you half a million at least guaranteed.. haha.
How much does the winner of this get, and how much 2nd/3rd get? I just wanna see what the incentives are, since yeah. THe whole grand prix cycle thing is over yeah? That was just mainly to decide who made it to candidates, no? So this is like the final tourney that no one cares about, or does this tournament/leg in the grand prix mean something that i'm not aware of? Can anyone educate me on the error of my ways? heh heh
Thanks in advance.
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