Search is on for Candidates venue, London mentioned

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FIDE Candidates 2012 (Venue)

Search is on for Candidates venue, London mentioned

IM Malcolm Pein - Wednesday 8th February 2012

IM Malcolm Pein talks about the early stories as to where the FIDE Candidates tournament may be held later in the year. London has been mentioned.

The FIDE rumour mill is working overtime as the organisation is in another muddle over where to stage the Candidates Matches. The contest will be an eight player double round all play all. The winner will face the victor of the world title match in May between world champion Vishy Anand and challenger Boris Gelfand. Berik Balgabayev, the Executive Assistant to FIDE President Kirsan Ilymuzhinov, declared on Twitter that the Candidates tournament will be held in London from October 23rd to November 11th. Your correspondent received an approach to run the event instead of the London Chess Classic at the end of this year, but the idea did not appeal.

It remains to be seen if FIDE will pull a rabbit out of the hat but past precedent suggests that there is some kite flying going on. Unfortunately for FIDE, they have a sponsor in Baku who is prepared to support the matches but Levon Aronian, the world number two will not play there due to the political tensions between Azerbaijan and his native Armenia. In an open letter to the FIDE Presidential Board, Aronian stated: "I'd like to inform you that general atmosphere in Azerbaijan and continuous tensions between our countries make my participation in such high ranked tournament in Azerbaijan impossible. A responsible and important event, such as the Candidates Tournament, requires peace of mind and special concentration". Security guarantees offered by FIDE have not satisfied Aronian. Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region between 1988-94 and the countries have no formal diplomatic relations.

No other venues have been proposed thus far. I would be happy to organise the event, if FIDE are prepared to pay for it.

The eight players are: Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Vasily Ivanchuk, either Gelfand or Anand, plus a wild card.

A brilliancy from Gibraltar as the Poisoned Pawn in the Sicilian Najdorf lives up to its name.

E Berg - M Vachier-Lagrave

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 h6 8.Bh4 Qb6

A small deviation from the main line Poisoned Pawn where Black omits h6

9.Qd3 Qxb2 10.Rb1 Qa3 11.f5 Be7 12.fxe6

(12.Be2 Nxe4! 13.Bxe7 Qxc3+ 14.Qxc3 Nxc3 wins. Black has only one piece in play but it wreaks havoc)

12...fxe6 13.Be2

(13.e5 dxe5 14.Qg6+ Kf8 15.Nde2 Nc6 is good for Black)

13...0-0 14.0-0 Kh8

(14...Nc6 15.Nxc6 bxc6 16.Nd5 Qxd3 17.Nxe7+ Kf7 18.cxd3 Kxe7 19.e5 dxe5 20.Bf3 with two strong bishops)

15.Kh1 Nbd7

(15...e5 16.Qd2! exd4 17.Nd5 has the point 17...Nxd5? 18.exd5 Rxf1+ 19.Rxf1 Bxh4 20.Rf8+ Kh7 21.Qf4 winning)