London Chess Classic 2009 (1)
Day one underway
IM Malcolm Pein - Wednesday 9th December 2009
The London Chess Classic is underway at Olympia. The players gathered on Monday for the opening press conference to do the drawing of lots. I brought along a giant wooden chess set and the Chief Arbiter Albert Vasse attached a number under each pawn.
The London Chess Classic is underway at Olympia. The players gathered on Monday for the opening press conference to do the drawing of lots. I brought along a giant wooden chess set and the Chief Arbiter Albert Vasse attached a number under each pawn.
The players chose in order of rating so Magnus Carlsen went first and got lucky as he chose number one, This is the best possible number as he has two games with the white pieces in the first two rounds. Kramnik chuckled as this was the third tournament in a row Carlsen had drawn an advantageous number. Perhaps I will delay one of his games and send him down to South Africa for the start of the first test and he can call the toss instead of Andrew Strauss.
Round one was underway as we sent to press:
Carlsen v Kramnik; McShane v Short; Howell v Adams; Nakamura v Ni Hua;
Today's games: Kramnik v Ni Hua; Adams v Nakamura; Short v Howell; Carlsen v McShane
The London Chess Classic is the highest level tournament in the UK for twenty five years. There are still spectator tickets available, see www.londonchessclassic.com.
The top seed Boris Gelfand is in the final of the FIDE World Cup after a surprisingly easy victory over Sergey Karjakin in the semi final. Having won the first game with black, Gelfand won quite easily with white. The Israeli number one was forced to sacrifice a piece but he had enormous compensation and the result of the game was never in doubt. The other semi final between Ruslan Ponomariov and Vladimir Malakhov has gone to overtime.
B Gelfand - S Karjakin
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk (6.2)
Slav Defence
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 dxc4 9.Bxc4 b5 10.Be2 Bb7 11.Rd1 Qc7 12.Bd2 e5 13.Rac1 a6 14.b4 Rfe8
(14...Bxb4 15.Nxb5 axb5 16.Bxb4)
15.Bd3 Bxb4 16.Ng5 h6 17.Nxb5 axb5 18.Bh7+ Kf8
(18...Kh8 19.Nxf7#)
19.Bxb4+ c5 20.dxc5 Bc6 21.Be4 Nb8
(21...hxg5 22.Bxc6 Qxc6 23.Rd6 Qc8 24.c6 is even worse)
22.Nh7+ Nxh7 23.Bxh7 g6
(The bishop may be trapped but it's on a kamikaze mission)
24.Rd6 Re7 25.h4 h5 26.Bxg6 fxg6 27.Qxg6 Rxa2
(27...Nd7 28.Rxc6)
28.Rcd1 Rf7 29.Qh6+ Rg7 30.Qf6+ Kg8
(30...Rf7 31.Rd8+ Be8 32.Qh8+ Ke7 33.Rxe8#)
31.Rd8+ Kh7 32.Qf5+ Rg6 33.Qxh5+ Rh6 34.Qf5+ 1-0
because: 34.Qf5+ Kg7 35.Qf8+ Kg6 36.R1d6+ leads to mate.
Sergey Karjakin
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Boris Gelfand
Position after 34.Qf5+
A blunderful end to a quarter final playoff but Ponomariov holds his nerve.
R Ponomariov - V Gashimov
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk (5.3)
English Symmetrical 25'+ 10'
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 d6 6.a3 Bg7 7.Rb1 a5 8.0-0 0-0 9.d3 h6 10.Bd2 Be6 11.Qa4 Bd7 12.Rfc1 Nd4 13.Qd1 Nxf3+ 14.Bxf3 Bc6 15.b4 Bxf3 16.exf3 axb4 17.axb4 b6 18.f4 Ra3 19.Nb5 Ra2 20.Be3 Qd7 21.Rc2 Ra4 22.bxc5 dxc5 23.Rcb2 Ra6 24.Rb3 Ng4 25.Bd2 h5 26.h3 Nh6 27.Kg2 Nf5 28.g4 hxg4 29.hxg4 Nh6 30.Kg3 Ra2 31.Be3 f5 32.g5 Ng4 33.Qf3 e6 34.Rh1 Rfa8 35.Nc3 Bxc3 36.Rxc3 R8a3 37.Rxa3 Rxa3 38.Rb1 Nxe3 39.Rxb6
(White can hold after 39.fxe3 Qxd3 40.Rxb6 Qxe3 41.Qxe3 Rxe3+ 42.Kf2 Re4 43.Kf3 Instead he tries an unsound sacrifice)
39...Nf1+ 40.Kg2 Nd2 41.Qe2 Rxd3 42.Qe5 Kh7 43.Qxc5 Ne4
(43...Rb3 44.Rc6 Ne4!)
44.Qb4 Qf7? 45.c5
(45.Qb1!)
45...Rd7 46.c6 Rc7 47.Rb7 e5??
(47...Nd6 48.Qxd6 Rxb7 49.cxb7 Qxb7+ =)
48.Rxc7 1-0
