12/12/2015 – It was not for lack of trying, but round eight saw four of the five games draw, a scene the fans are all too familiar with. The only win was Anish Giri's victory over Hikaru Nakamura, still not recovered from yesterday's disheartening loss. Magnus Carlsen pressed Vesselin Topalov for the longest time, but could not crack the Bulgarian. Express report with video analysis by Daniel King.
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The 7th London Chess Classic, England's premier tournament, takes place
at its traditional venue of Kensington Olympia from Friday December 4th
to Sunday December 13th. The main event, the strongest ever held in the
UK, is a nine-round ten-player super tournament played at a rate of 40 moves
in 2 hours, followed by the rest of the game in one hour with a 30-second
increment from move 41. The overall prize fund is $300,000, with the winner
getting $75,000.
When the games are running, clicking on the above link will take you to
our live broadcast. It is free and open to all – as a Premium Account
member you have access to the Live Book, Chat, chess engine analysis –
all in your browser, on a notebook, tablet or even your smartphone. And
the Let's
Check function will show you what the most powerful computers in the
world think of the current position, as each move is being played.
Round 8 Saturday 12 Dec, 14.00-21.00
Anish Giri
1-0
Hikaru Nakamura
Veselin Topalov
½-½
Magnus Carlsen
Alexander Grischuk
½-½
Levon Aronian
M Vachier-Lagrave
½-½
Michael Adams
Fabiano Caruana
½-½
Viswanathan Anand
Daniel King: Round 8 Anish Giri vs Hikaru Nakamura
Round-up of day 8 by Fiona Steil-Antoni
Today’s penultimate round saw a lone decisive result, but the players
treated us to plenty of fighting chess and set the stage perfectly for tomorrow’s
9th and final round in which a huge amount is at stake. The winners of the
London Chess Classic and Grand Chess Tour will be decided as well as who
qualifies for next year’s Tour.
The first game of the day to finish saw tournament leader Vachier-Lagrave
draw with Adams who defended the Ruy Lopez with ease. MVL decided to repeat
moves and a draw was agreed on move 37. While this game was always balanced,
the draw that soon followed between Grischuk and Aronian was a much wilder
affair. The Russian joked in the post-game analysis that this had not been
one of Aronian’s better opening preparations, as White got a tangible
advantage. However, Alexander soon found himself in time trouble (again!)
and not only let his edge slip, but even found himself worse. By his own
admission, Aronian then committed the mistake of trying to flag his opponent,
allowing a nice piece sacrifice which led to a perpetual check.
Carlsen and Caruana were a pawn up in their respective endgames against
Topalov and Anand. Caruana had held an edge for some time but Anand had
seen that the game was going to be drawn despite the pawn minus. Anish Giri
demonstrated the method in an instructive live commentary. Topalov-Carlsen
was a battle of attrition with Carlsen very nearly giving us another demonstration
of how he can create something from nothing. With just rook, knight and
three pawns each remaining, all on the same side of the board, Carlsen managed
to tie the back marker up in knots. The spectators were puzzled as to why
Carlsen decided to liquidate into a drawn endgame with rook and 3 pawns
against rook and 2 pawns. Giri also demonstrated the drawing plan of Ra3-Ra6
pinning the e6 pawn. Afterwards, Carlsen revealed that he needed to avoid
the 50 move rule and an interesting discussion ensued as to whether the
rules need a tweak, particularly in games with increment. Carlsen was always
making progress and he didn’t have enough moves to fully carry out
his plans. Something for everyone to ponder after the tournament.
That leaves us with today’s decisive encounter in which Giri inflicted
a second consecutive defeat on Nakamura. Anish chose the best moment to
produce a beautiful game, as he not only joins MVL in the tournament lead,
but also moves into first place in the Grand Chess Tour standings. Giri
remains unbeaten throughout the Tour, a fantastic accomplishment!
This means that going into tomorrow’s last round, MVL and Giri share
the lead with 5/8, but they are closely followed by Carlsen, Aronian and
Grischuk, who trail them by just half a point. Tomorrow’s three crucial
encounters are therefore Aronian-Vachier Lagrave, Anand-Giri and Carlsen-Grischuk.
Chess fans couldn’t have hoped for a more exciting climax to the Grand
Chess Tour, as with one game to go, four players are still in with a realistic
chance of winning the Tour: Giri, MVL, Carlsen and Aronian. An interesting
subplot will also be unfolding in the Aronian-Vachier Lagrave encounter,
as the Armenian will most probably have to decide the game in his favour
in order to edge out MVL for the last qualification spot of the 2016 Grand
Chess Tour. A tie for first in the London Chess Classic or the Grand Chess
Tour will necessitate a play-off – it could be a late night!
Before the start of the ‘big games’, over 350 players made
their way to Olympia Conference Centre to participate in the Super
Rapidplay. After 5 rounds, four players are still on a perfect score:
Howell, Melkumyan, McShane and Arakhamia-Grant (who, despite her 2393 rating,
took out Hawkins, Rowson and Hammer!). The tournament is incredibly strong
with over 30 GMs taking part.
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 there
and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase
or any of our Fritz
compatible chess programs.
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