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.

 

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.