
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.
Vlad The Anglocide
Round eight report by John Saunders
Round 8:
Sunday, December 11, 2011 |
Vishy Anand |
½-½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
David Howell |
½-½ |
Levon Aronian |
Luke McShane |
0-1 |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Hikaru Nakamura |
½-½ |
Nigel Short |
Michael Adams (bye) – assisting
commentary |

There was just one decisive result in the penultimate round: Vladimir Kramnik
broke English hearts by beating home player Luke McShane in a long, fluctuating
struggle. That put the former world champion two points clear of the field.
He has White in the final round and is not someone who is readily beatable with
that colour. And in order for Vlad not to finish first (at least on tie-break),
something would have to happen that has never happened before at a classical
time control: Levon Aronian would have to beat him with Black in tomorrow’s
final round.
Let’s run through a few possible last-round permutations. If Vlad wins,
of course he takes the title and the 50,000 Euros first prize. If he draws,
and Magnus Carlsen fails to win (he’s Black against Nigel Short), the
same applies. If Vlad draws and Magnus wins, then Vlad is first on tie-break
(an extra black win) but they receive 37,500 Euros each. If Vlady loses, Magnus
could jump over him to take first, or if he fails too, Luke McShane can even
finish first ahead of Vlad on tie-break (if he beats Vishy) as can Hikaru Nakamura
(after a play-off, if he beats Mickey Adams). The upshot of this is that all
four boards tomorrow feature a player who has a chance (albeit remote) of first
place.
It’s a shame I used my Jack in the Beanstalk pantomime joke in the round
five report because, as it turns out, Vlad Kramnik (and not Hikaru Nakamura)
was the Giant after all. Today Vlad completed his sweep of the four English
players. Luke put up a grand fight, not just to draw but to win, but in the
end an extreme case of time trouble was his undoing. Luke fought right through
the next time control but it always looked forlorn.
David Howell (above) completed his quota of eight games with a draw with Levon
Aronian after a long struggle. Tomorrow he reappears as a commentator. Aronian
tried what is an unusual opening for him – the Pirc. (Which far too many
British chessplayers pronounce ‘perk’ – one of my pet hates!
It is more like ‘peerts’.) This was a very good effort by David
Howell against the world number three and allowed him to finish on, if not a
‘high’, at least a ‘medium high’.
The first game to finish was Anand-Carlsen, which was drawn after 33 moves.
It started life as a Queen’s Gambit Declined, Tartakower Variation. It
followed theory for about 17 moves and then a number of pieces were exchanged,
coming down to a fairly arid position, with rook and knight each and symmetrical
pawns. “Not your most exciting game ever,” said Lawrence Trent to
the players. “It had its moments,” replied Vishy, good-humouredly.

Top US grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in round eight against...

... former World Championship challenger Nigel Short of Britain
The last game to finish was Nakamura-Short, which started with an English Opening
and a Dutch flavour (...f7-f5 being played), not unlike the game Carlsen-Nakamura
from last year (which ended in a draw). Before long, the pawns locked across
the board like a World War One trench system. They said of that war that it
would be “over by Christmas” but Mickey Adams took a look at this
game and commented “this could last forever!” With draw offers illegal
under the Classic rules, it was a worrying point. A couple of pawns were exchanged
at move 31 but it made little difference. A pair of rooks were exchanged at
move 73 but that didn’t change anything either. Thankfully the players
repeated positions at move 90 and an armistice was signed.
FIDE Open
The last round proved fruitful for India but barren for the home nation. Top
seed GM Abhijeet Gupta beat Keith Arkell to secure the first prize with 8/9.
IM Sahaj Grover, also of India, finished second on his own with 7½ after
beating Peter Wells. Completing the English misery, IM Arghyadip Das beat Jovanka
Houska and thus deprived her of a GM norm. Third place was shared by Gawain
Jones, Tiger Hillarp Persson, Arghyadip Das, Aaron Summerscale and Lorin D’Costa
with 7. Tom Weber of Luxembourg achieved an IM norm.
Jovanka Houska’s quest for a full GM norm came to a tragic end. Her time
will come.
Women’s Invitational
The two leaders, IM Dagne Ciuksyte of England and WIM Guliskhan Nakhbayeva
of Kazakhstan, both won to score 7½/9 and share first place. For the
Kazakh player it brought a WGM norm.
Standings after eight rounds (London scoring)

Standings after eight 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, 2011 Rest 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 |
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 |
|
Round
7: Saturday, December 10, 2011 |
Nigel Short |
0-1 |
Luke McShane |
Vladimir Kramnik |
1-0 |
David Howell |
Levon Aronian |
½-½ |
Vishy Anand |
Magnus Carlsen |
1-0 |
Michael Adams |
Hikaru Nakamura (bye) –
assisting commentary |
|
Round
8: Sunday, December 11, 2011 |
Vishy Anand |
½-½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
David Howell |
½-½ |
Levon Aronian |
Luke McShane |
0-1 |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Hikaru Nakamura |
½-½ |
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
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. |
|
Copyright
ChessBase

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.
Vlad The Anglocide
Round eight report by John Saunders
Round 8:
Sunday, December 11, 2011 |
Vishy Anand |
½-½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
David Howell |
½-½ |
Levon Aronian |
Luke McShane |
0-1 |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Hikaru Nakamura |
½-½ |
Nigel Short |
Michael Adams (bye) – assisting
commentary |

There was just one decisive result in the penultimate round: Vladimir Kramnik
broke English hearts by beating home player Luke McShane in a long, fluctuating
struggle. That put the former world champion two points clear of the field.
He has White in the final round and is not someone who is readily beatable with
that colour. And in order for Vlad not to finish first (at least on tie-break),
something would have to happen that has never happened before at a classical
time control: Levon Aronian would have to beat him with Black in tomorrow’s
final round.
Let’s run through a few possible last-round permutations. If Vlad wins,
of course he takes the title and the 50,000 Euros first prize. If he draws,
and Magnus Carlsen fails to win (he’s Black against Nigel Short), the
same applies. If Vlad draws and Magnus wins, then Vlad is first on tie-break
(an extra black win) but they receive 37,500 Euros each. If Vlady loses, Magnus
could jump over him to take first, or if he fails too, Luke McShane can even
finish first ahead of Vlad on tie-break (if he beats Vishy) as can Hikaru Nakamura
(after a play-off, if he beats Mickey Adams). The upshot of this is that all
four boards tomorrow feature a player who has a chance (albeit remote) of first
place.
It’s a shame I used my Jack in the Beanstalk pantomime joke in the round
five report because, as it turns out, Vlad Kramnik (and not Hikaru Nakamura)
was the Giant after all. Today Vlad completed his sweep of the four English
players. Luke put up a grand fight, not just to draw but to win, but in the
end an extreme case of time trouble was his undoing. Luke fought right through
the next time control but it always looked forlorn.
David Howell (above) completed his quota of eight games with a draw with Levon
Aronian after a long struggle. Tomorrow he reappears as a commentator. Aronian
tried what is an unusual opening for him – the Pirc. (Which far too many
British chessplayers pronounce ‘perk’ – one of my pet hates!
It is more like ‘peerts’.) This was a very good effort by David
Howell against the world number three and allowed him to finish on, if not a
‘high’, at least a ‘medium high’.
The first game to finish was Anand-Carlsen, which was drawn after 33 moves.
It started life as a Queen’s Gambit Declined, Tartakower Variation. It
followed theory for about 17 moves and then a number of pieces were exchanged,
coming down to a fairly arid position, with rook and knight each and symmetrical
pawns. “Not your most exciting game ever,” said Lawrence Trent to
the players. “It had its moments,” replied Vishy, good-humouredly.

Top US grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura in round eight against...

... former World Championship challenger Nigel Short of Britain
The last game to finish was Nakamura-Short, which started with an English Opening
and a Dutch flavour (...f7-f5 being played), not unlike the game Carlsen-Nakamura
from last year (which ended in a draw). Before long, the pawns locked across
the board like a World War One trench system. They said of that war that it
would be “over by Christmas” but Mickey Adams took a look at this
game and commented “this could last forever!” With draw offers illegal
under the Classic rules, it was a worrying point. A couple of pawns were exchanged
at move 31 but it made little difference. A pair of rooks were exchanged at
move 73 but that didn’t change anything either. Thankfully the players
repeated positions at move 90 and an armistice was signed.
FIDE Open
The last round proved fruitful for India but barren for the home nation. Top
seed GM Abhijeet Gupta beat Keith Arkell to secure the first prize with 8/9.
IM Sahaj Grover, also of India, finished second on his own with 7½ after
beating Peter Wells. Completing the English misery, IM Arghyadip Das beat Jovanka
Houska and thus deprived her of a GM norm. Third place was shared by Gawain
Jones, Tiger Hillarp Persson, Arghyadip Das, Aaron Summerscale and Lorin D’Costa
with 7. Tom Weber of Luxembourg achieved an IM norm.
Jovanka Houska’s quest for a full GM norm came to a tragic end. Her time
will come.
Women’s Invitational
The two leaders, IM Dagne Ciuksyte of England and WIM Guliskhan Nakhbayeva
of Kazakhstan, both won to score 7½/9 and share first place. For the
Kazakh player it brought a WGM norm.
Standings after eight rounds (London scoring)

Standings after eight 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, 2011 Rest 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 |
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 |
|
Round
7: Saturday, December 10, 2011 |
Nigel Short |
0-1 |
Luke McShane |
Vladimir Kramnik |
1-0 |
David Howell |
Levon Aronian |
½-½ |
Vishy Anand |
Magnus Carlsen |
1-0 |
Michael Adams |
Hikaru Nakamura (bye) –
assisting commentary |
|
Round
8: Sunday, December 11, 2011 |
Vishy Anand |
½-½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
David Howell |
½-½ |
Levon Aronian |
Luke McShane |
0-1 |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Hikaru Nakamura |
½-½ |
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
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. |
|
Copyright
ChessBase