3rd London Chess Classic 2011 (Arrival)
Players arrive for the 3rd London Chess Classic 2011
IM Malcolm Pein - Thursday 1st December 2011
The London Chess Classic will be FIDE category 20, with the players having an average rating of 2748. I did the pairings with Chief Arbiter Albert Vasse on Tuesday and it will be Nigel Short who sits out game one. Instead of a grandmaster, Nigel will be playing Boris Becker, who will be guest of the tournament on Saturday.
The stage for the London Chess Classic. Photo © Ray Morris-Hill. | http://www.rmhphoto.eu
The players are arriving today for the 3rd London Chess Classic,the strongest tournament ever staged on these shores, which begins on Saturday at Olympia. The Classic will be FIDE category 20, with the players having an average rating of 2748. I did the pairings with Chief Arbiter Albert Vasse on Tuesday and it will be Nigel Short who sits out game one. Instead of a grandmaster, Nigel will be playing Boris Becker, who will be guest of the tournament on Saturday.
The players will give a press conference on Friday which will be streamed live on www.londonchessclassic.com and, for readers who use Twitter, there will be unique opportuhity to challenge Magnus Carlsen, Vishy Anand and the rest of the field as they will play a game of chess against the world via #londonclassic. Please follow the twitter feed for instructions. The players will make their first move at 14.30 tomorrow and you can tweet your suggested replies. The board will be updated live at the tournament website.
The ECF junior squad performed admirably at the World Youth Championships in Brazil under the stewardship of the new ECF Junior Director Phil Ehr. Yang Fan Zhou scored 6.5/9 in the U-18 Open and came =5th and 8th on tie break. England's highest scorer was Ravi Haria of Elstree in the U-12 Open with 7/9. Ravi would have secured the silver medal with a last round win over the eventual winner but drew and ended joint 3rd and 6th on tie break.
12. 0-0-0 was too optimistic and Black's Na6 proves impossible to contain.
M Costachi - R Haria
Benko Gambut
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.Qc2 Na6! 5.a3 bxc4 6.e4 e6 7.Bxc4 exd5 8.exd5 Bd6! 9.Nc3 0-0 10.Bg5 Nc7 11.Nge2 Re8 12.0-0-0?! Rb8 13.Rd3 h6 14.Bh4 Ba6! 15.Bxa6 Nxa6 16.Rf3 Be5 17.g4 c4! 18.Rg1 Nc5 19.g5 hxg5 20.Bxg5 Nd3+ 21.Rxd3 cxd3 22.Qxd3 Qb6
(attacking b2 and f2, the game is over)
23.b4 Rbc8 24.Kd1 Qxf2 25.Bh6 Nh7 26.Ne4 Qxh2 27.Be3 f5 28.Ng5 Nxg5 29.Bxg5 Bb2 30.Re1 Qh5 31.Bf4 Rc3 32.Qd2 Rc1+ 0-1
R Haria
 | | | |  | |  | |
 | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | |  | | | |  |
| | | | |  | | |
| | | | | | | |
|  | |  |  | | | |
| | |  |  | | | |
M Costachi
Position after 32...Rc1+
33.Qxc1 Bxc1 34.Bxc1 Qf3 0-1
Tickets for the 3rd London Chess Classic are still available but only on the door at Olympia. Online entry to the side events is also closed but there is space in all tournaments for late entries on the day. The moves will be relayed with commentary from telegraph.co.uk/chess. My Twitter updates can be found at #IM_MPein_chess
One of the shortest games of the year
D.Rajkovic - A.Samartsev
21st World Senior
Gruenfeld Slav
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.Bf4 Nf6 6.e3 0-0 7.Rc1 Re8?! 8.h3 Nbd7? 9.cxd5 Nxd5??
A.Samartsev
| | | | | | | |
| | |  | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | |
D.Rajkovic
This game only lasted two more moves, why?
Answer:
10.Nxd5 cxd5 11.Bc7 1-0
