12/14/2015 – Three players finished with 5.5/9 points, leading to a very exciting three-way playoff. Due to the nature of the rules, Vachier-Lagrave and Giri first squared off, with MVL prevailing in a dramatic turnaround. He then faced Carlsen for the title. More playoff tension, but in the end Magnus Carlsen claimed both the London Classic title and the Grand Chess Tour. Express report.
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Fritz has fascinated the chess world for 30 years. And the success story continues. In Vienna, the most popular chess program ever was once again able to underline its premier position: the newly developed neural engine with NNUE technology won the official Chess Software World Championship!
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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. Below are the four most-watched boards.
Round 9 Sunday 13 Dec, 14.00-21.00
Viswanathan Anand
½-½
Anish Giri
Michael Adams
½-½
Fabiano Caruana
Levon Aronian
½-½
M Vachier-Lagrave
Magnus Carlsen
1-0
Alexander Grischuk
Hikaru Nakamura
½-½
Veselin Topalov
Playoff
Tiebreak regulations:
Three Players: The two players placed lowest on tiebreak shall contest a two game Rapidplay match at a time limit of Game / 25 mins + 5 secs / move throughout. Lots shall be drawn to decide which player has White in the first game. If the two game Rapidplay match is drawn the players shall contest an Armageddon Game. The successful player in that game shall then play the player with the highest tiebreak in accordance with the procedure for two players specified in Regulation 6.
Match one
Player
G1
G2
G3
Total
M. Vachier-Lagrave
0
1
1
2.0
Anish Giri
1
0
0
1.0
Game one: For many, the appearance of the Berlin in game one was synonymous of groans, but Anish Giri's play as black was nearly exemplary to the very end as he made it almost look like a walk in the park. MVL eventually conceded after 43 moves, and will have a significant mountain to climb as he faces a must-win with black in game two. The stakes could not be higher: the overall winner will not only win the London Chess Classic tournament, he will win the entire Grand Chess Tour.
Game two: At the top, the players are quick to point out that if White refuses to fight, there is very little Black can do about it. Anish Giri showed how true that can be as he chose the Fianchetto line against the Gruenfeld and was content to kill any of MVL's ambitions in their tracks. The Frenchman did his best but was never able to generate any play, until late in the endgame, MVL began to see a light at the end of the tunnel. What had seemed like a done deal in favor of Anish Giri was suddenly no longer obvious, and in the mad time scramble the Frenchman pulled off his miracle.
Armageddon: Being described as the most solid player of the Grand Chess Tour is a mixed blessing as Anish Giri found out. In the Armageddon game, the young Dutch player had White, which meant a draw was effectively a loss. MVL's renowned blitz skills came to the fore as he did more than hold with black and dominated the game to reserve a seat for a showdown with the World Champion.
Match two
Player
G1
G2
G3
Total
Magnus Carlsen
1
½
1.5
M. Vachier-Lagrave
0
½
0.5
Game one: It was a strange choice by MVL, who played his pet Sicilian, but somehow went for a line that allowed a form of Maroczy bind. This was the sort of position Carlsen lives for and the ensuing middlegame seemed all in his favor as he built a huge position. Incredibly, just when it seemed only a matter of time, the World Champion began to falter at the finish line and a number of inaccuracies saw a huge advantage dissipate and the game seemed destined for a draw. Then Magnus pulled off his magic as he played one simple move that confused his opponent, and showing that even the very best can err in basic endgames, MVL lost.
Game two: It became clear fairly soon that MVL was still not recovered from his shock loss in the previous game, and a number of dubious positional moves that left grandmasters perplexed eventually led to a worse and even lost game. Magnus felt no need to push the point, content to draw, winning both the London Chess Classic and the Grand Chess Tour.
Video of round nine
Replay games of round nine and playoff (with times per move)
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.
The Dutch Defence Powerbook 2023 consists for the greater part of engine games (77 000), to which have been added high value material from Mega and the Correspondence Chess Database (34 000).
Dutch Defence Powerbase 2023 is a database and contains a total of 8024 games from Mega 2023 and the Correspondence Database 2022, of which 695 are annotated.
The Leningrad Dutch Defence is a dynamic and aggressive opening choice for Black, perfect for players who want to add some adventure and spice to their repertoire.
Over an hour of video training: Nico Zwirs (Najdorf Variation with 6.Bg5), Sipke Ernst (3.h4 against the Gruenfeld), Romain Edouard (Critical Lines in the Dragon II). Lucky bag with analyses by Anish Giri, Spyridon Kapnisis, Adrian Mikhalchishin et al.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
Review of the WR Masters 2023 with analyses from Aronian, Duda, Esipenko, Gukesh, Keymer and Praggnanandhaa. "Special” on Vishy Anand. Opening videos by Mendonca, Bauer and Marin. Opening articles from Caro-Kann to King’s Indian and much more.
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