McShane holds Aronian in Rd1 of London Classic

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3rd London Chess Classic 2011 (1)

McShane holds Aronian in Rd1 of London Classic

IM Malcolm Pein - Monday 5th December 2011

IM Malcolm Pein reports on the first round of the London Chess Classic and looks at Luke McShane's draw with Levon Aronian.

Good start for Luke McShane. Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.

Good start for Luke McShane. Photo © Ray Morris-Hill. | http://www.rmhphoto.eu

The London Chess Classic began at Olympia on Saturday with Boris Becker making the ceremonial first move for Magnus Carlsen who was the only winner. Carlsen stayed calm as David Howell grabbed two pawns and although the position was about level, Carlsen just waited for Howell to self destruct in time trouble. Round three starts at 2pm today and can be followed live on telegraph.co.uk/chess or londonchessclassic.com. Tickets can be purchased on the door. The competition is being staged by the charity Chess in Schools and Communities and runs until December 12^th

Luke McShane played very imaginatively, playing two pawn sacrifices to hold world number three Levon Aronian to a draw.

L Aronian - L McShane

Chebanenko Slav a6

1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 a6 5.Qb3 e6 6.Bg5 Be7 7.e3 0-0 8.Be2 h6 9.Bh4 dxc4 10.Qxc4 b5 11.Qd3 Nbd7 12.a4

Black needs to play c6-c5 to free his position so White attacks b5 to inhibit this

12...b4 13.Bxf6 Nxf6 14.Ne4 c5! 15.Nxc5 Bxc5 16.dxc5 Bb7

Black has achieved his objective at the cost of a pawn

17.Rc1 Rc8 18.Nd4

(Aronian goes for complications because 18.0-0 Qxd3 19.Bxd3 Nd7!=)

18...Bxg2 19.Rg1 Bd5 20.f3

(20.Qxa6 Ne4 21.c6 Qh4)

20...Qc7 21.Rg3 Rfd8 22.Qxa6 Ra8 23.Qb6 Qe5