London Chess Classic 2009 (Preview)
London Chess Classic Tickets and side events
IM Malcolm Pein - Monday 24th August 2009
Tickets are now available for the London Chess Classic. There will be a number of tournaments for members of the public too.
There will be side events throughout the London Chess Classic at Olympia from December 8-15 so spectators will be able to play chess as well as watch the top players in action. There will be a FIDE rated Open with Grandmaster participation, a weekend Open, a one day Rapidplay and every night after the main event has ended my team will organise a Blitz tournament.
Tickets for the London Chess Classic will go on sale in early September and there will be reduced prices for readers. There will be two commentaries at the venue, one of which will be pitched at inexperienced players and one for club players. Of the eight Grandmasters only two; Michael Adams and Ni Hua have lost rating points since I sent their invitiations. Thanks to the recent successes of Nigel Short, Hikaru Nakamura and Vladimir Kramnik the London Chess Classic is currently FIDE category 19 with the players having an average rating of over 2700.
Here a couple of games from the Staunton Memorial which featured exchange sacrifices. In both cases Black achieves a favourable change to the pawn structure.
In this game from the sixth round Gawain Jones had been defending carefully for much of the game in a King's Indian Defence but had eventually engineered a breakthrough on the queenside. Although the position still looks blocked, Black's central pawns are actually closet space invaders and they come in for a touch as the sacrifice enables Black to remove c4 and d5.
Gawain Jones
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Erwin L'Ami
Position after 67.Bc2
67...Rxc2+! 68.Kxc2 Rxc4+ 69.Kb3 Rd4 70.a5 Nxd5 71.R3e2 c4+ 72.Ka4 c3+ 73.Kb5 e3 74.f5
(74.a6 c2 75.a7 Nc3+ 76.Kb6 Rb4+ 77.Kc7 Ra4)
74...Rd2 75.Rg2 c2 76.Rc1 e2 77.Rgg1 Rd1 78.a6 Rxg1 79.Rxg1 Nc3+ 80.Kb6 Bg8 81.a7 Bd5 82.f6 Nd1! 83.Nf5+ Kg5 84.f7 c1Q 85.f8Q Qc6+ 86.Ka5 Qc5+ 87.Ka6 Qc6+ 88.Ka5 Qc7+ 0-1
In view of 88...Qc7+ 89.Ka6 Bc4# and 88...Qc7+ 89.Kb5 Nc3+ 90.Kb4 Qc5#
Terry Chapman finds an excellent exchange sacrifice that transforms the position.
L Trent (2471) - T Chapman (2232)
7th Staunton Memorial London (6)
Pribyl Defence
1.e4 d6 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 c6 4.Nf3 Qa5 5.e5 Nd5 6.d4 Bg4 7.Bd2 Qb6 8.Na4 Bxf3 9.Nxb6 Bxd1 10.Nxd5
(After 10.Nxa8 Bxc2 the white knight is trapped)
10...cxd5 11.Rxd1 Nc6 12.c3 e6 13.Bd3 g6 14.0-0 h5 15.Be3 Kd7 16.b3
(Intending to gain more space with c3-c4)
16...a6 17.c4 Nb4 18.Bb1 Bh6 19.a3 Nc6 20.cxd5 exd5 21.b4 Ne7 22.Ba2 Rac8 23.Rd3 Rc6 24.b5?!
(Unnecessary, 24.a4 Rhc8 25.Bd2 is good)
24...axb5 25.Bd2 Rhc8 26.Bb3 Rc4!
(Creating a protected passed pawn, removing White's good bishop and giving the knight unassailable squares on d5 and f5. White should probably decline)
27.Bxc4 dxc4 28.Rh3 Nf5 29.exd6 Kxd6 30.Rb1 Nxd4 31.Rd1 Kc6 32.g4 Ne2+ 33.Kf1 Nxf4 34.Bxf4 Bxf4 35.gxh5 gxh5 36.a4 f5 37.Rh4 Be3
(Black's 'c' pawn is poised to advance)
38.Ke2 f4 39.axb5+ Kxb5
(39...Kb6!)
40.Rxh5+ Kc6 41.Rh6+ Kc5 42.Rb1
(42.Rh5+!=)
42...Kd4 43.Rh5 c3 44.Rb4+ Rc4 45.Rxc4+ Kxc4 46.Rh7 b6 47.Rc7+ Kb3 48.Kd3 Bc5 0-1
