12/8/2011 – Hikaru Nakamura’s game plan seemed to be to aim for steady pressure, allowing David Howell’s habitual time trouble to take its toll. Nigel Short was doing reasonably well against Vishy Anand until he slipped into time trouble and played "a move of criminal stupidity," (Nigel after the game). Mickey Adams succumbed to his third straight defeat against Vlad Kramnik. Commentary by John Saunders.
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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 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.
Nakamura Shines as England Goes Down in Flames
Round five report by John Saunders
Round 5:
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Hikaru Nakamura
1-0
David Howell
Nigel Short
0-1
Vishy Anand
Vladimir Kramnik
1-0
Michael Adams
Levon Aronian
½-½
Magnus Carlsen
Luke McShane (bye) – assisting
commentary
With their star striker on the bench, England went down 0-3 in this crucial
round. No, this isn’t football and I’m not predicting the first
round of next year’s European Team Championship (with Wayne Rooney hors
de combat). This was the main feature of the fifth round of the London
Chess Classic. England’s leading contender Luke McShane was in the commentary
room watching as his English colleagues were being shot down in flames.
The principal beneficiary of the bloodshed was Hikaru Nakamura (above), who
beat David Howell to take over the sole lead. If Hikaru weren’t such a
pleasant young fellow, I’d cast him as the Giant in the traditional Christmas
pantomime Jack And The Beanstalk, with his traditional cry of “Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman”. And, don’t forget, he
has three more Englishmen to come. Yesterday’s game started with a distinctly
pantomime flavour. As usual, there were large numbers of schoolchildren in the
auditorium to watch the start of play, and when tournament director Malcolm
Pein opened with his customary “Good Afternoon, everyone”, quite
unprompted the children all chorused “good afternoon” in reply.
It was a delightful moment and Malcolm couldn’t resist giving it a reprise,
with the children again responding with gusto.
Hikaru Nakamura’s game plan seemed to be to play within himself and aim
for steady pressure, allowing David Howell’s habitual time trouble to
take its toll. This is more or less what happened.
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1.c4e52.Nc3Nf63.g3Bb44.Nf3Bxc35.bxc3Nc66.Bg20-07.0-0Re88.d3e49.Nd4exd310.exd3Nxd411.cxd4d512.Be3h6Exiting theory.12...Be6was played by English IM Mike Basman against Mikhail Botvinnik at
Hastings in 1966. 12...Bf5 has been played more recently by Wesley So.13.h3b6With hindsight this may not be the best plan.14.Rc1Qd715.Bf4Bb716.Be5Nh717.c5[diag] One consequence of this move is that the black bishop
is rendered unemployed on the long diagonal. At the moment, so is the white
light-squared bishop but the American soon finds a solution.Rac818.h4Nf819.Kh2bxc5After19...Ne6,20.Qg4gives White king side pressure.20.Bh3Ne621.Rxc5f622.Bf4Qd823.Ra5c5I presume the objection to
something like23...Ra824.Be3c625.Qa4is that it leaves Black's
position rather static, with White retaining the initiative. David prefers
something bolder.24.Rxa7Qb625.Ra4Nxd4!?26.Qh5!?26.Bxc8Bxc8is
a useful exchange sacrifice, with Black poised to exploit the weakened light
squares on the kingside. Both players are less concerned about material than
having attacking chances.26...Qc6?26...f5!looks a lot better,
blocking the scope of the light-squared bishop and preventing an occupation of
the weak g6 square.27.Rxd4!?cxd428.Bxf5looks plausible but afterRa8it is not so clear how White can prosecute the attack.27.Rb1Ra828.Rxa8Rxa8[diag]29.Bg2The computer comes up with a remarkable move
understandably missed by both players:29.Re1‼, the point being that
Black cannot usefully stop the rook coming to e7 where it facilitates a mating
attack. There are lots of variations but Black is dead lost at the end of all
of them, e.g.Kf830.Bxh6!Qd631.Bf4Qd8and now the mind-numbingly
brilliant32.Re6‼finishes the game. But no human could be blamed for
missing this sort of continuation.29...Ne6?White is on top anyway but
this allows an elegant winning tactic:29...Rd830.Rxb7Qxb731.Bxd5Qc832.Bxh6!Ra632...gxh633.Qg6+Kh834.Qxh6+soon wins.33.Be3Rd633...Ra334.Qf5Kf735.Bxc5Ra536.d4also wins.34.Bxc5!Rxd534...Qxc535.Bxe6+wins the queen.35.Qxd5Kf736.Be3Qa637.Qc4Qa838.d41–0
The round featured the meeting of the two young men who sit atop the unofficial
live chess rating list. Levon Aronian (above) had white against Magnus Carlsen.
It was a Chebanenko Slav, with Levon quickly diverging from the line he had
used against Luke McShane. He obtained a big edge, overlooking a chance to subject
his opponent to a strong bind, but nerves seemed to play a part on both sides
and Magnus was ultimately able to draw the game. Something of a let-off for
Carlsen, while Aronian’s finishing is not as sharp as we have come to
expect.
Nigel Short (above) played a slightly offbeat line against Vishy Anand’s
Sicilian. GMs in the VIP room shook their heads at this choice of opening, opining
that you have to play ‘real openings’ to retain a white initiative
against world-class players. Nevertheless, Nigel seemed to be doing reasonably
well until he slipped into time trouble after spending rather too long on his
25th move and then blundering on move 34: “a move of criminal stupidity,”
as he himself characterised it in the commentary room.
This win was the world champion’s first in a long time – nine rounds
in Moscow and five here. But it is not unprecedented for a great champion, for
example Kasparov’s unsuccessful defence of his title in 2000 in which
he failed to win a game.
Mickey Adams (above) succumbed to his third straight defeat against Vlad Kramnik.
GM Stuart Conquest on Twitter (@stuthefox) commented sympathetically: “Adams
has now lost three in a row: a terrible strain for any player. Let’s hope
he can show his best chess vs Aronian tomorrow.” Of course, playing Kramnik
as Black is bad news anyway; he is as relentless as inquisitor as Carlsen.
It was Vlad’s famous recipe: Kramnik à la Catalan. Stir gently
for about 20-30 moves and then apply some minority attack seasoning to taste.
However, the electronic master chef Rybka points out that he overcooked it slightly
on move 28, where Black could have played 28...Nc7, threatening to snap off
the rook. Engine analysis suggests the outcome would be fairly equal. What Mickey
played was much worse: he shed a pawn within a few moves. Vlad applied steady
heat and he was soon done to a turn.
On Friday 9 December, Hikaru Nakamura celebrates his 24th birthday. Many happy
returns! His present is Black against a well-rested Luke McShane. Hikaru has
celebrated his previous birthdays in London with black against Mickey Adams
in 2009 (a draw) and black against Vlad Kramnik in 2010 (a win), so he should
be pretty confident.
However, home fans will be looking to Luke to make amends for the English ‘Black
Thursday’ and ruin Hikaru’s birthday. The US/UK ‘special relationship’
has been put on hold for the day. Home fans have had quite a lot to cheer them
in the Open, incidentally.
Top English woman player IM Jovanka Houska (above) shares the lead on 5½/6
with GMs Peter Wells and Abhijeet Gupta from India. Jovanka has beaten GM Matthieu
Cornette of France and highly-rated Indian IM Sahaj Grover, as well as drawing
with in-form English GM Gawain Jones (and she was pressing hard for an endgame
win in that game too). Jovanka’s performance rating is currently an eye-watering
2762 – and she has a very realistic chance of a GM norm.
After all the heavyweight chess, here’s some light entertainment from
the FIDE Open.
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[diag]18.Bh6!?18.Rf2is pretty good for White here, but Plug decides
to go for it, big time.18...Bxf119.Bxg7Kxg720.Rxe6Bxg221.Qh6+Kh822.f6Rg822...Rf7is better, says my analysis engine, but let's not worry
too much about that.23.fxe7Nxe724.Kxg2Rg725.Ne3Qf826.Rxe7!?Wow,
that's ambitious. This sort of move is sometimes called a 'fifty percenter'
because the opponent has the choice of one very good move - and one very bad
one.Qxe7"Darn it," thinks White, "he saw that after26...Rxe727.Ng6+
wins the queen."27.Nef5Qe2+28.Kg1Qe1+29.Kg2Qe2+30.Kg1Qe1+31.Kg2Yes, White has now seen the error of his ways and realises he has nothing.Qe4+32.Kg1[diag] Black could take the perpetual but decides that two rooks
are worth more than two knights...Rf7??... he's right but unfortunately
not in this precise position...32...Qb1+33.Kg2Qxb2+34.Kh3Qxc3wins
for Black.33.Ng6+!Kg834.Qg7+‼Rxg735.Nh6#mate1–0
Maximise the video replay to follow the commentary more easily...
Standings after four rounds (London scoring)
Standings after four rounds (traditional scoring)
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
½-½
Michael Adams
Luke McShane
½-½
Magnus Carlsen
Hikaru Nakamura
1-0
Levon Aronian
Nigel Short
0-1
Vladimir Kramnik
Vishy Anand (bye) – assisting
commentary
Round
3: Monday, December 5, 2011
Levon Aronian
1-0
Nigel Short
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
Hikaru Nakamura
Michael Adams
0-1
Luke McShane
Vishy Anand
½-½
David Howell
Vladimir Kramnik (bye) –
assisting commentary
Round
4: Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Magnus Carlsen
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
Michael Adams
0-1
Nigel Short
Vishy Anand
0-1
Hikaru Nakamura
David Howell
0-1
Luke McShane
Levon Aronian (bye) –
assisting commentary
Wednesday,
December 7, 2011Rest day
Round
5: Thursday, December 8, 2011
Hikaru Nakamura
1-0
David Howell
Nigel Short
0-1
Vishy Anand
Vladimir Kramnik
1-0
Michael Adams
Levon Aronian
½-½
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
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Naturally the games will be covered live on the official web site (below) and
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round start two hours earlier.
The games are being broadcast live on the official
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2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
Powerbook based on more than 618 000 games in which White already sidesteps the main variations of the Sicilian on move 2.
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