12/10/2011 – After a positive glut of decisive results during the first five rounds, there were four draws in round six, all in under 40 moves. One of them was fairly uneventful but there was some interesting play on offer in the other three, especially with bye player Magnus Carlsen providing insightful commentary. Hikaru Nakamura remains in the lead, but three players have the chance to leapfrog over him on Saturday.
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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.
Friday Early Closing
Round six report by John Saunders
Round 6:
Friday, December 9, 2011
Michael Adams
½-½
Levon Aronian
Vishy Anand
½-½
Vladimir Kramnik
David Howell
½-½
Nigel Short
Luke McShane
½-½
Hikaru Nakamura
Magnus Carlsen (bye) – assisting
commentary
Spectators in the commentary room listen to the players after their games
After three straight defeats, Mickey Adams could be forgiven for heading for
something solid against Levon Aronian. It was a Berlin Defence, and Mickey headed
for a line with a lot of exchanges and a balanced pawn structure. It came down
to a rook and pawns endgame and a repetition.
Nigel Short in the post morten in the commentary room after his game against...
... the youngest participant, David Howell
David Howell responded to Nigel Short’s Sicilian with 2 c3. Retired English
GM Michael Stean (who paid the tournament a visit a few days ago) once suggested
that 2 c3 against the Sicilian should be outlawed for being dull or cowardly
or something of that sort. I hesitate to agree with him, mainly since I spent
about 30 years playing it myself. It transposed into an Exchange French which
also tends towards the draw. White enjoyed a slight edge for a while but Black
responded positively and a draw resulted. Magnus Carlsen looked at some interesting
variations from the game. Here is the final phase.
The current world champion, Vishy Anand, and the man he dethroned, Vlad Kramnik,
started with a Queen’s Gambit and the queens soon disappeared from the
board. However, what ensued was an interesting cut and thrust in which both
players tried to create winning chances, or at least to stay active, fearing
their opponent’s relentless technique once they had established a stranglehold.
Anand in cheerful discussion after his game against...
Vladimir Kramnik, who is joint second in the tournament
Vishy Anand played an exchange for pawn sacrifice in a position where he might
have been expected to steer for a draw (as Levon Aronian commented in the VIP
room) and then Vlad Kramnik opted for a piece for pawns sacrifice, which had
the spectating GMs scratching their heads until they managed to figure out what
he was up to. After a liquidation it came down to Vishy’s bishop and knight
for Vlad’s rook but with just three pawns each on one side of the board,
a draw was to be expected.
Hikaru Nakamura, still in the lead in the 2011 Chess Classic
Magnus Carlsen, who had a bye in round six, chats with GM Danny King (left)
McShane-Nakamura was perhaps the game of the round, and mightily enhanced by
the commentary of Magnus Carlsen, who did stints in both the VIP and main commentary
rooms (both of which were packed out). Asked about his intentions as regards
the world championship, Magnus expressed a similar opinion about it to the one
in the recent interview with Janis Nisii: “The only time I think about
it is when someone asks me about it.” And, to emphasise his cool attitude
towards it: “right now I’m thinking more about the London Classic
than the World Championship” – a comment which elicited a round
of applause from the audience.
Three rounds remain, with most of the players now having just two games left.
Hikaru Nakamura now sits out round seven and may see as many as three players
(Carlsen, Kramnik and/or McShane) leapfrog over him. But when he returns to
the board in round eight, he has two more games with the white pieces to look
forward to, against Adams and Short, while Magnus Carlsen finishes with two
Blacks. Hikaru may be the slight favourite to win but anything can happen, especially
under the 3-1-0 system.
FIDE Open
Leaders: The two top seeds, Abhijeet Gupta and Gawain Jones, are among the
five players in the lead on 6/7 and meet in round eight (Gupta has White). The
other three on 6 are Peter Wells, IM Bjorn Thorfinsson and IM Jovanka Houska,
with the latter two having very good GM norm chances.
Korchnoi Simuls
In the second of his two simuls, the great Viktor Korchnoi scored 18 wins,
3 draws, 1 loss. Here is his loss:
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.
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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