London Chess Classic 2009 (Day 1)
London Chess Classic Starts today
IM Malcolm Pein - Tuesday 8th December 2009
The London Chess Classic, the most prestigious tournament in the UK for twenty five years starts this afternoon at Olympia. Four of the world's leading players, including world number one Magnus Carlsen, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and US champion Hikaru Nakamura compete against England's leading quartet of Nigel Short, Michael Adams, Luke McShane and David Howell. Chinese team captain Ni Hua completes the field.
The London Chess Classic, the most prestigious tournament in the UK for twenty five years starts this afternoon at Olympia. Four of the world's leading players, including world number one Magnus Carlsen, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and US champion Hikaru Nakamura compete against England's leading quartet of Nigel Short, Michael Adams, Luke McShane and David Howell. Chinese team captain Ni Hua completes the field.
The first round pairings are
| Round 1 (December 8, 2009) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlsen, Magnus | - Kramnik, Vladimir | * | ||||
| Howell, David W L | - Adams, Michael | * | ||||
| McShane, Luke J | - Short, Nigel D | * | ||||
| Nakamura, Hikaru | - Ni Hua | * | ||||
The tournament is seven rounds all play all. The prize fund is €100,000 with €64,000 of main prizes including €25000 for the winner, a €10,000 prize for the best game , a €1000 prize in rounds 1-6 for the best game and a €20,000 prize pool shared according to the number of games won.
Play starts at 2pm and live game transmission will be available from telegraph.co.uk
There are still tickets available for rounds 2-7 please see www.londonchessclassic.com for details.
The top seed Boris Gelfand has looked impressive at the FIDE World Cup and he has excellent chances to progress to the final after defeating Sergey Karjakin with black in game one of the semi final. Gelfand only needs to close out the match with a draw in the return playing white. In the other semi final Ruslan Ponomariov and Vladimir Malakhov had a fairly uneventful draw.
There is $300,000 of prize money still be won less FIDE's 20% cut. Semi final losers take home $40.000 the losing finalist gets $64,000 and the winner $96,000.
S Karjakin (2723) - B Gelfand
Bishop's Opening
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.Bb3 d5 7.exd5 Nxd5 8.h3 a5! 9.a4 Nd4 10.Nxd4
(10.Nxe5 Nxb3)
10...exd4 11.Re1 Ra6! 12.Qh5 Nb4 13.Na3
(13.Nd2)
13...Rg6 14.Bf4 b6 15.Qf3 Be6! 16.Bxe6 fxe6 17.Qe4 Bd6! 18.Bxd6 cxd6 19.Qxd4
(A rather hot pawn Gelfand whips up a big attack)
19...Qg5 20.g3
(20.Qe4 d5)
20...Qf5 21.g4
(21.Re2 Qxh3 22.Qe4 Nd5 23.Nc4 Nf4]
21...h5 22.Re4 d5
Boris Gelfand
 | | | | |  |  | |
| | | | | |  | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | |  | | |
 |  | |  |  | | | |
 | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | |  | |
Sergey Karjakin
Position after 22...d5 game over White loses at least two pawns
23.Kh2 Qf3 24.Ree1 hxg4 25.Qe3 gxh3 26.Qxf3 Rxf3 27.Rg1 Rxf2+ 28.Kxh3 Rxg1 29.Rxg1 Nxc2 30.Nb5 Rf3+ 31.Kg4 Rxd3 32.Nd6 Ne3+ 33.Kf4 Nc4 0-1
A blunderful end to a quarter final playoff but Ponomariov holds his nerve.
R Ponomariov - V Gashimov
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
