Vlad All Over
Tuesday 13th
December 2011

Many congratulations to Vladimir
Kramnik of Russia, who has won the third London Chess
Classic. If you needed someone to save your life by getting
a draw with White, Kramnik would be most people’s first
choice. He was solidity personified against Levon Aronian,
rapidly liquidating to a level bishop ending. That gave him
the point he needed to take the trophy.
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Garry
Kasparov presents the trophy and winners cheque for €50,000 to London
Classic winner 2011, Vladimir Kramnik.
more
prizegiving
photos |
|
Magnus Carlsen could still have shared the money (though not the trophy) with
Vlad had he won with Black against Nigel Short in their now traditional last
round encounter but he had rather worst of things.
The game started with the Giuoco Pianissimo - ‘very quiet game’ - which most of us learn when we are
beginners. “I haven’t played this since I was about eight,” said Nigel. “I
haven’t scored with White in this event and I decided to play something
incredibly boring.
Magnus tried to inject some excitement into [the game] - but the excitement was
all for White.”

Nigel managed a picturesque d4-d5 thrust, which was a very
useful pawn sacrifice, and the resultant activity saw him go from a pawn down to
a pawn up. He was close to winning at one stage and Magnus admitted he “played a
horrible series of moves” to get himself into difficulties.
| Final annotated report by John Saunders
|
Replay all
Classic games | Standings & Final
Crosstable |

London Chess
Classic 2011 on DDTV
India's Biggest Television Network
Doordarshan will telecast Four
Exclusive Highlights of the 3rd London Chess Classic on its DD Sports Channel.
Filmed and Produced by Vijay Kumar the 30 minutes Highlights of each episode
will be telecast as under:
1st Episode on 23rd Jan 2012 from 2230-2300 hrs .... GMT 1700-1730hrs
2nd Episode on 23rd Jan 2012 from 2230-2300 hrs
3rd Episode on 23rd Jan 2012 from 2230-2300 hrs
4th Episode on 23rd Jan 2012 from 2230-2300 hrs
The Free to Air telecast will also be available in parts of
Europe Middle East and South East Asia on INSAT 3A Satellite.
VIJAY KUMAR IBS [Retd]
Fmr Chief
Producer News & Sports Doordarshan Indian TV Network
Plaudits &
Letters 2011
Click to read our plaudits
and letters page following the conclusion of this highly
successful and enjoyable 2011 event. The London Chess
Classic team welcomes
your comments about any aspect of the
event.
Abhijeet Gupta wins
London Classic Open

Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta (left) won the London Classic FIDE Open with
8/9. He defeated Gawain Jones in round 8 and Keith Arkell in round 9
to claim the £2500 first prize.
Final scores: 1st. Abhijeet Gupta (India) 8/9; 2nd. IM Sahaj Grover (India) 7½
... 231
players.

|
Full results |
Telegraph
reports by Malcolm Pein |

Ravi Haria wins 2nd
English Junior RP
Well done to Ravi Haria (right) for winning the 2nd English Junior
Rapidplay, held during the London Classic, with a score of 5½/6. |
Full details |


Best Game Prizes
Round 1:
Aronian draw McShane (shared); Round 2:
Short 0–1 Kramnik; Round 3:
Carlsen 1–0 Nakamura; Round 4:
Anand 0–1 Nakamura; Round 5:
Nakamura 1–0 Howell; Round 6:
Anand draw Kramnik (shared); Round 7:
Kramnik 1–0
Howell; Round 8: McShane 0-1 Kramnik but shared; Round 9:
Nakamura 1-0 Adams;
All games | Replay
| PGN |
The prizes were awarded to the winner, or shared in the event
of a draw. However, the prize for Round 8, awarded for the game in which Kramnik
beat McShane, was shared between the two players.

Garry
Kasparov Book Signing!
- 11th
December

The great man himself paid a visit to the London
Chess Classic for a book signing on Sunday 11th Dec. His latest
work 'Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov Part 1: 1973-1985'
is on sale now and you can order a copy by
clicking
here.
More photos of Garry's visit here
Videos
by Macauley Peterson
Macauley is a freelance mediamaker. He was voted 2008 "Chess
Journalist of the Year" by the Chess Journalists of America. His written work
has appeared in Chess Life, Chess Life Online (U.S.A.), New in Chess
(Netherlands), "64" (Russia), Chess (U.K.), and elsewhere.

See more video highlights on our
YouTube Channel.
WinkBall reporters paid a visit to the
London Chess Classic 2011. They specialise in capturing
people's passion using the power of video.

Click to see what they
discovered!



Round 8
Report
by John Saunders

Vlad The Anglocide
There was just one decisive result in the penultimate round: Vladimir Kramnik
broke English hearts by beating home player Luke McShane in a long, fluctuating
struggle. That put the former world champion two points clear of the field.
He has White in the final round and is not someone who is readily beatable with
that colour. And in order for Vlad not to finish first (at least on tie-break),
something would have to happen that has never happened before at a classical
time control: Levon Aronian would have to beat him with Black in tomorrow’s
final round.
Let’s run through a few possible last-round permutations. If
Vlad wins, of course he takes the title and the 50,000 Euros first prize. If he
draws, and Magnus Carlsen fails to win (he’s Black against Nigel Short), the
same applies. If Vlad draws and Magnus wins, then Vlad is first on tie-break ...
[All is revealed in the
round 8 report]

FIDE Open
For details of FIDE Open prizewinners click
here.
Please claim your prize by emailing
Game of the
Day
International Master
Andrew Martin provided a daily 'Game of the Day' video
for the London Chess Classic Click
here to see his contributions.
