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Round 4
Report
by John Saunders |
The tournament has passed the midway
point and we now have joint leaders. World champion Vishy
Anand celebrated his 41st birthday by defeating backmarker
Nigel Short to join Luke McShane (who drew with Mickey
Adams) in the lead. It wasn’t quite such a good day for the
English players as Friday as David Howell also lost, to
Vladimir Kramnik. The last game to finish was
Carlsen-Nakamura, which Magnus won after five hours of play.
So the scores are: Vishy Anand, Luke McShane 8/12,
Vladimir Kramnik 7, Magnus Carlsen 6, Hikaru Nakamura 5,
Mickey Adams 5, David Howell 2, Nigel Short 1.
A WALK IN THE PARK
Sunday sees the clash of the two leaders,
while Monday is the rest day. I dare say everyone is looking
forward to a break from the frenetic, not least Vlad Kramnik
who told us that his 7 hour 47 minute marathon against Luke
McShane was his personal record in terms of time at the
board. I have no inside information as to what super-GMs do
during these breaks in play. One of them, Luke McShane, is a
London resident so I am guessing he won’t move far from his
place in Pimlico on Monday. Vlad Kramnik is reputed to be a
‘night owl’ so he will probably lie low for a day, though he
might be tempted to pop down to Riverside Studios near the
river at Hammersmith where he relieved Garry Kasparov of his
world championship title ten years ago in order to seek
inspiration for the coming fray.
My own suggestion for what to do would be
a walk in the park. London has an excellent selection of
open spaces to pick from, my own personal favourite being
Richmond Park, partly because it is so handy for where I
live but also because it is a nature reserve where you can
see a wide variety of birds and other animals. It is not so
convenient for central London so a better bet might be St
James Park, with its eclectic mixture of impressive views
and water birds. For example, take a look at this...
This is a view of Whitehall from St James
Park, with all the government buildings strangely clustered
together like an image from a fairy tale. Here’s another...
It is probably hard to believe that this
building is right in the heart of London. It is the
so-called Swiss chalet in St James Park, and only a short
distance from the prime minister’s residence, 10 Downing
Street.
The flora and fauna in the park are also
rather surprising. Take, for example, this fearsome beast...
A pelican in St James’ Park. Hardly a
native species but they were introduced to the park
centuries ago and thrive there, gliding up and down the lake
as if they own the place. I’d like to believe that they were
imported from Sicily (Sicilian Pelican - get it?) but it
turns out that the Russian ambassador presented the original
pelicans to King Charles II in 1664. A few years ago a
pelican horrified people in the park by gulping down a live
pigeon in full view. Pigeons also have to beware of danger
in the air as there is now a growing population of peregrine
falcons for whom London’s best-known birds are the ‘fast
food’ of choice.
Moving on from St James towards
Buckingham Palace, you can see some more traditional
‘touristy’ things such as brightly-coloured soldiers
marching up and down...
and the ‘Queen Vic Statue’, built to
commemorate the pub in England’s most popular soap opera ‘Eastenders’...
... or possibly a 19th century queen of
that name. Her husband was Prince Albert and, in Hyde Park
(another vast open space with much to recommend it), stands
Victoria’s tribute to her much-loved consort.
In 1962 the satirical magazine ‘Private
Eye’ published a photo of the Albert Memorial with the
caption ‘Britain’s first man in space’.
But enough of the tourist guide. We still
have to deal with the events of round four. After emerging
from some initial difficulties with his Closed Sicilian
opening, Nigel Short seemed to be doing quite well around
move 28, when Vishy Anand allowed him to open the g-file and
land a rook on the seventh. He worked a knight around to
assist in the attack but then had an aberration, sacrificing
first a pawn and then a bishop to hack a way through to
Vishy’s king. But there was a flaw in his calculation -
Vishy had the simple move 38...Qd6! which covered all the
mating threats. He was left a piece adrift, so fell on his
sword, allowing a mating finish to entertain the crowd.
Vladimir Kramnik built up a steady
advantage from the opening (a Grünfeld) against David Howell
and opened up the h-file for his rooks to infiltrate. It
wasn’t easy to make further progress and a liquidation
occurred to what looked like a less dangerous position.
However, Vlad established his rook on the seventh rank and
his bishop on g4 and Black suddenly had difficulty
protecting his king from their unwanted attentions. David
tried a desperate b5 push and after a further inaccuracy
found he couldn’t prevent the advance of Vlad’s d- pawn.
Game over. Vlad is now a point behind leaders Vishy and
Luke.
Luke McShane opened with the quiet 1 g3
and Mickey Adams gradually assumed the initiative. He
established his queen and rook on the seventh rank but Luke
had a tactical trick to swap the queens and relieve the
pressure. Further exchanges were made and the game
eventually came down to an opposite-coloured bishop - hence
drawn.
Hikaru Nakamura answered Magnus Carlsen’s
English Opening with a sort of Dutch Defence, but the
Norwegian emerged from the opening with a steady edge. One
interesting juncture was when Magnus exchanged a bishop for
a knight (23 Bd4 and 24 Bxb6). It looked as though Hikaru
might be OK with his two bishops but Magnus’s pressure told
in time trouble when Hikaru didn’t have time to work out the
consequences of 33...Rd8!? which he thought might have been
a better try. He missed the desperado sacrifice 38 Rxg6+
after which he was left a pawn down in an endgame. Magnus’s
technique was immaculate and he soon brought the game to an
end.
Carlsen, Magus - Nakamura, Hikaru
London Chess Classic 2nd London (4),
11.12.2010
1.c4. Magnus is now a confirmed 'anglophile' when it
comes to his choice of opening for white... 1...f5
... while Hikaru favours the Netherlands with black. Of
course it is not a true Dutch, as White does not play d4 at
any stage. 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 d6 4.Nc3 g6 5.e3 Bg7 6.Nge2 0-0
7.0-0 e5 8.b3 Nbd7 9.d3 c6 10.Ba3 Qc7 11.Qd2 Re8 12.Rae1 Nc5
13.h3 e4 14.dxe4. 14.d4 isn't really an option because
of 14...Nd3 and the knight makes a nuisance of itself.
14...Nfxe4 15.Qc2 Nxc3 16.Nxc3 Be6 17.Rd1 Rad8 18.Bb2 Bf7
19.Rd2 a5 20.Rfd1 Be5 21.Ne2
So far, a
lot of cautious jockeying for position has ensued, but now
Hikaru makes a committal move. 21...a4 22.b4 Nd7 23.Bd4.
Note the immediate capture of the a-pawn with 23.Qxa4
would be a very bad idea because of 23...Nb6! 24.Qb3 Nxc4
and White is actually losing material. However, the a-pawn
remains a liability in the long term as it is awkward to
defend. 23...Nb6. 23...Bxd4 is not a good idea as
Black would be giving up a key defender of the d6 pawn.
24.Bxb6! Qxb6 25.Rb1 Qc7 26.Nd4 Rc8 27.Rc1 Qe7 28.Rd3.
The a-pawn is still indirectly defended: 28.Qxa4? Bxg3! is
good for Black. 28...c5 29.bxc5 Rxc5 30.Qxa4 Rec8 31.Rb1
Rxc4 32.Qd1!
White was
quite brave to surrender bishop for knight on move 24 but
his positional plan appears to be to target Black's loose
pawns on b7 and d6. 32...b6. After this White takes a
firm grip of the position. Perhaps 32...R4c5!? was worth a
try, e.g. 33.Rxb7 R8c7 34.Rxc7 Qxc7 35.Qd2 Rc1+ 36.Kh2 Bxd4
37.Rxd4 Rc2. 33.Nb5 R4c5. Hikaru was short of time.
He looked at 33...Rd8 34.f4 Bf6 35.Nxd6 Rc3 36.Rxb6 Qc7
37.Rxc3 Qxc3 38.Qe2 Bd4!? but didn't have time to check all
the implications. 34.Nxd6 Bxd6 35.Rxd6 Bxa2 36.Ra1 Rc1
37.Rxc1 Rxc1 38.Rxg6+. A desperado move to secure the
extra pawn. 38...hxg6 39.Qxc1 Qd6 40.h4 Bf7 41.h5 Kh7.
41...gxh5 42.Qc8+ Kg7 43.Qxf5 is worse. 42.hxg6+ Kxg6
43.Qc2 b5 44.g4 Qe5. 44...Be6? 45.gxf5+ Bxf5 46.e4! wins
a piece; but 44...b4!? seems worth a try since it is quite
hard for White to restrain the b-pawn and Black's f-pawn is
lost anyway. 45.gxf5+ Kg7. 45...Kf6 46.Qc6+! Kxf5?
47.Bh3+ Kg5 48.f4+ wins the queen. 46.Qe4 Qd6
The
exchange of queens leads to a win for White as we shall see
shortly. 47.Qh4 Bc4 48.Bf3 Qf6 49.Qxf6+ Kxf6 50.Be4 Ba2.
50...b4 51.f4 b3 52.Kf2 b2 53.Bb1 wins. 51.f4 b4
52.Kf2 b3 53.Bd5 Kxf5 54.Kf3 Kf6 55.e4 Kg6 56.Ke3. It's
now a straightforward technical win though those of us less
skilled at the game could easily mess it up. For example,
56.Kg4? Bb1! is a draw. 56...Kh5 57.Kd4 Kg4 58.f5 Kg5
59.Ke5 1-0.
Scores after round 4:
Vishy Anand, Luke McShane 8/12,
Vladimir Kramnik 7, Magnus Carlsen 6, Hikaru Nakamura 5,
Mickey Adams 5, David Howell 2, Nigel Short 1. (Note,
games are scored 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and
0 points for a loss)
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
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