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Round 1
Report
by John Saunders |
The inaugural 2009 London Chess Classic was so good, with
so many positive, entertaining games, that the superstitious
and/or pessimistic amongst us couldn’t help worrying that
2010 couldn’t be as good. Was 2009 beginner’s luck? Would
the players go on strike, play some boring Petroffs and draw
all their games?
Good news: so far things in 2010 are as good as in 2009.
Positivity is alive and well and producing decisive
encounters at London’s Olympia Conference Centre, with only
one game of the first four drawn and that one going down to
the wire. But that’s not to say we didn’t have some changes
of script. Far from it! As we left things last year, Magnus
Carlsen and David Howell were the two big success stories,
the former winning the tournament and zooming to the top of
the rating list, while David Howell sailed through the
event, finishing a superlative third despite his status as
lowest rated player. Neither lost a game in 2009. But what a
difference a year makes: in 2010, both are carefree
teenagers no longer. David Howell is a university student
while Magnus Carlsen is a part-time fashion model. Twenty is
evidently a difficult age as the two young men both looked
out of sorts in round one and lost.
A quick resumé of the games: David Howell tried to build
a ‘Berlin Wall’ though, architecturally, this was a
‘pre-Kramnik’ version of the sturdy edifice which Vladimir
Kramnik first erected in this same borough of London to keep
out ‘Big Bad Wolf’ Kasparov in their 2000 world championship
match. David admitted to the commentary room that he had not
played this particular line of the Berlin Ruy Lopez before
but had looked at it some weeks before. Mickey wasn’t
prepared for it but found a playable line which offered him
an edge. The GM pundits reckoned that 14...Nd3 was the first
wrong step for Howell and he was gracious enough to plead
guilty to all charges when brought before the trial judges
in the commentary room. “I expected Mickey to play 15 Re2
and when he started thinking, it dawned on me that I’d
missed 15 Re3!”, he confessed to the audience. Giving up the
b-pawn and getting the rook onto the third rank supercharged
the white attack on the queenside. Mickey thought 16...Ba6
might have been better than 16...Bxg5 but after that most of
the assembled experts regarded Howell’s position as
unsalvageable. “I had given up and was just trying to keep a
straight face at the board,” admitted David Howell, to the
laughter of the large audience.
Adams, Michael (2723) - Howell, David (2645)
London Chess Classic 2nd London (1), 08.12.2010
Ruy Lopez, Berlin
Defence
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3
Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 0–0 Nxe4 5 d4 Be7
5...Nd6 is 'the real
Kramnik', as used to wrest the world title from Garry
Kasparov in 2000 6 Qe2 Nd6 7 Bxc6 bxc6 7...dxc6? is
rarely played as it leads to big trouble after 8 dxe5 Nf5 9
Rd1 Bd7 (only move) 10 e6! fxe6 11 Ne5 Bd6 12 Qh5+, etc.
8 dxe5 Nb7 9 c4 9 Nc3 is more frequently seen 9...0–0
10 Nc3 f6 Nigel Short chose 10...Re8 against Chinese
prodigy Hou Yifan at Corus 2008 but lost quite quickly 11
Re1 fxe5 12 Qxe5 Bf6 13 Qg3 A new move, where 13 Qh5 had
previously been preferred 13...Nc5 14 Bg5
14...Nd3?
Black
regretted this move, which gets him into trouble. 14...d6 is
perhaps a better alternative, keeping a wary eye on White's
kingside build-up and continuing with development 15 Re3!
David Howell had originally expected 15 Re2 but when
Black started to spend a long time on what he had thought an
automatic response, he suddenly became aware of this more
forceful move 15...Nxb2 There is little else for it
but to follow through with this capture 16 Rae1 Bxg5?!
Mickey Adams said he had expected 16...Ba6 when he might
have replied 17 Ne4 with some play for the pawn, though
there is chess left in the position 17 Nxg5 Qf6
Anything and 18 Re7 would be unanswerable 18 Rf3 Qd8 19
Nce4 White has a choice of good moves. Another is 19
Qe5, which craftily closes on the black knight, e.g.
19...Nxc4 20 Rxf8+ Qxf8 21 Qe4 with twin threats of Qxh7
mate and Qxc4 19...Ba6
20
Nxh7!
20
Rxf8+ is also very good, e.g. 20...Qxf8 21 Nxh7! Kxh7 22
Ng5+ Kg8 23 Qh3! and it's all over 20...Rxf3 21 gxf3 Kxh7
22 Ng5+ Kg8 23 Qh4 Bxc4 24 Qh7+ Kf8 25 Re5 Be6 26 Qh8+ Ke7
27 Qxg7+ Kd6 28 Ne4 mate.
The big
surprise of the round was Magnus Carlsen’s defeat at the
hands of England’s Luke McShane, which was sweet revenge for
Luke’s loss to Magnus in 2009. The game followed a known (if
slightly obscure) line of the English Opening until Magnus
experimented with 9...Ne5, when the more conservative
...Nxd4 and ...Bd7 have been tried before. Magnus found
himself obliged to re-stable his horse again a couple of
moves later. This (literally) cavalier play was faintly
reminiscent of Carlsen’s adoption of another off-beat
knight-hopping defence against Mickey Adams at the Olympiad.
It was a risky plan, trying to lure his opponent into
complications. For those who know the late Simon Webb’s
wonderful book Chess for Tigers, it seemed as if the
Heffalump was luring the Tiger into the swamp instead of the
other way round. Soon we saw the equivalent of the Great
Grimpen Mire open up on the chessboard but it was the
cat-like McShane who emerged unmuddied whilst the Norwegian
heffalump sank without trace into the primeval sludge (yes,
I know I’m getting my Simon Webb enmeshed with my Conan
Doyle, and my monstrous hound confused with my pachyderm,
but I don’t care).
McShane, Luke -
Carlsen, Magnus
London
Chess Classic 2nd London (1), 08.12.2010
English Opening
1 c4
Luke McShane is
predominantly a 1 e4 player but he occasionally tries other
opening moves 1...c5 2 g3 g6 3 Bg2 Bg7 4 Nc3 Nc6 5 Nf3 d6
6 0–0 Nh6 Carlsen, as much the highest rated player, is
trying to make the running with Black 7 d4 The most
enterprising continuation, showing that both players are up
for a fight 7...cxd4 8 Bxh6 Bxh6 9 Nxd4 Ne5!?
A new move. Previous
games in this line had continued 9...Bd7 or 9...Nxd4, with
only a slight edge for White. Carlsen prefers to keep
material on the board and aim for complexity 10 Qb3 0–0
11 Rfd1
A
tricky position for Black. There is no immediate danger of
the g2 bishop capturing on b7 but at the same time Black
can't make positional progress until he has resolved the
clamp on his queenside. So he resolves to move his knight
yet again in order to redeploy it to c5.
11...Nd7 12 Qa3 a5 13 b4 Ra6
After the game, the players and commentators (GM Dan King and IM
Lawrence Trent) had a look at some complex lines beginning
13...Nb6 14 c5 Nc4 15 Qb3 Nd2 without coming to any specific
conclusions. But these lines might have been combative for
Black than the text 14 b5 Ra8 15 e3 a4 Black gets
ready for a possible development of his queen on a5 16
Rab1 Bg7 17 Ne4 Qb6
18 Nc6!
A tactical trick
which yields a positional edge 18...Re8 18...bxc6!?
19 bxc6 Qa5 (19...Qxc6?? 20 Nf6+ wins the queen) 20 cxd7
Bxd7 21 c5!? Bg4 22 Rdc1 may be playable but Magnus Carlsen
didn't feel comfortable with it 19 Nb4 White prepares
to establish his knight on d5 and if Black tries to oust it
with e6, the d6 pawn will be left very vulnerable.
19...f5 20 Nc3 Qc5
20...Bxc3
21 Qxc3 e6 is not an option as White can bring further
firepower onto the d6 pawn and win it 21 Nxa4!
Another tactical trick with positional intentions
21...Qa7 22 Na6 bxa6 23
b6 Nxb6
23...Qb8 is answered by 24 Qb3! with threats of c5+ and b7
forking rook and bishop. If 24...Bb7 25 c5+ Kh8 26 c6 and
wins 24 Rxb6 Rb8 25 c5! Be6 25...Rxb6? 26 cxb6 Qd7 27
b7 Bxb7 28 Nc5 wins a piece; 25...dxc5 26 Qb3+! c4 27 Qxc4+
Kh8 28 Qf7! is remarkably effective, e.g. 28...Rf8 29 Rxb8
Rxf7 30 Rxc8+ Bf8 31 Nc5 and White has a firm grip on the
position 26 Rdb1 dxc5 27 Rb7 Rxb7 28 Rxb7 Qa8 29 Nxc5!
Good choice. 29 Rxe7 Qd8 30 Rxe8+ Qxe8 31 Nxc5 Bf8 is
much less decisive. Luke McShane is playing with great
accuracy 29...Qc8 30 Qxa6 Bf7 30...Qxc5 31 Qxe6+ Kh8
32 Bc6 leads to an overwhelming position for White 31 Bc6
Rd8
32
Nd7!
32
Rxe7? would be a serious error after 32...Bf8. White is
getting ready to strangle Black with Qb6 and Rb8 so Black
plays something desperate 32...Rxd7 33 Bxd7 Qc1+ 34 Qf1
Qxf1+ 35 Kxf1 Bc4+ 36 Kg1 Bxa2 37 Ba4 e5 38 f3 Bh6 39 Bb3+
1–0
“I played
strategically and got mated,” said a whimsical Nigel Short
of the final stage of his loss to Vlad Kramnik. Nigel has
had some splendid results with old-fashioned 1 e4 e5
openings over the years (including a good win against French
star Laurent Fressinet at the Olympiad) but he made little
impression on the former world champion, who built up a
solid positional advantage based on his central pawns.
Eventually an e-pawn thrust cut Short’s position in half,
separating his queen from his vulnerable king, and Kramnik
conjured up a powerful kingside offensive to kill the white
king. Short tried a few defensive alternatives in the
commentary room and let out an audible expression of pain as
Kramnik announced a particularly vicious refutation of his
idea.
Hikaru
Nakamura also played a ‘Berlin Wall’ but this was the
standard Kramnik recipe used to tranquillise Garry Kasparov
(should we call it the Hammersmith variation?). The world
champion of the year 2000 couldn’t break it down so maybe
his successor a decade on would also find it tough. Vishy
was playing his first chess game in Britain for 16 years but
he looked very composed as he set about grinding out an
endgame win. English GMs Jon Speelman and John Nunn were
practically salivating at the prospect of a long-distance
endgame. Vishy Anand is another person who can remember when
endgames really were endgames (with those strange
rituals called adjournments, sealed moves and resumptions
which Magnus, Hikaru and co will be blissfully unaware of),
but in the end he couldn’t break down Hikaru’s rugged
resistance. Yesterday Hikaru wasn’t best pleased with his
tournament draw - Black versus Anand, Kramnik (tomorrow) and
Carlsen (in round 4), but the upside of this equation
becomes apparent if he succeeds in toughing it out with the
big guys - it leaves him with some whites against the
others. Maybe things are looking up for the American.
Scores after
round 1: Michael Adams, Luke McShane, Vladimir Kramnik 3
points; Vishy Anand, Hikaru Nakamura 1 point; David Howell,
Magnus Carlsen, Nigel Short.
(Note, games are scored 3 points for a win, 1 point for a
draw and 0 points for a loss)
Note that the
Round 2 games start two hours later than in Round
One, for one round only, on 9 December 2010. That’s 4pm
British time.
For more
information and to buy tickets to The London Chess Classic,
please go to
www.londonchessclassic.com
High quality photos may be found on
the website at
http://www.londonchessclassic.com/photos.htm
•
Games
in PGN •
Replay
• Round 1 Express Report
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