John Saunders
reports:
The fifth round of the 9th
London Chess Classic, played on
Wednesday 6 December 2017 at the
Olympia Conference Centre, saw
US number one Fabiano Caruana
forge clear of the field by a
point after winning his second
game in a row, this time against
ex-world champion Vishy Anand.
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Tournament leader
Fabiano Caruana
talks to Maurice
Ashley in the studio
(Photo Lennart
Ootes) |
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It’s starting to look like a
one-man tournament. Caruana
has won two games, the other
nine competitors not one
between them. We’ve only
just passed the mid-point of
the tournament, of course,
so it could all go wrong for
him yet but it would require
a sea change in the pacific
nature of the tournament for
this to happen. Minds are
starting to go back to
Fabi’s wonder tournament,
the Sinquefield Cup of 2014
when he scored an incredible
8˝/10 to finish a Grand
Canyon in points ahead of
Carlsen, Topalov, Aronian,
Vachier-Lagrave and
Nakamura. That amounted to a
tournament performance
rating of 3103 which is so
off the scale for these
things that it doesn’t even
register on the brain as a
feasible Elo number. Only
super-computers usually
scale those heights. For
Fabi to replicate that
achievement he would have to
win all his remaining games
in London. But he won’t be
worrying about the margin of
victory so much as finishing
first. He needs to keep his
mind on his game and I won’t
jinx his tournament any
further with more effusive
comments.
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Fabiano Caruana and
Vishy Anand shake
hands before their
round five game
(Photo Lennart
Ootes) |
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Caruana’s win against Vishy
Anand follows. The Indian
star had the good grace to
visit the commentary room
and answer a few questions
but he was understandably
disappointed with his play
towards the end of the game.
It was another triumph for
Fabiano’s positive,
confident play from what
looked a fairly innocuous
opening, creating a position
that was imbalanced and just
sharp enough to induce a few
errors when the pressure
built up.
London Classic, Round 5,
06.12.2017
Fabiano Caruana
Viswanathan Anand
Ruy Lopez C65
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6
The Berlin Wall goes up.
Which reminds me, in March
2018 eight candidates will
assemble in Berlin to decide
the challenger to Magnus
Carlsen’s world title, but
Vishy Anand will not be one
of them. Four of the
Candidates – Karjakin,
Aronian, Caruana and So –
are in the current London
line-up. 4.d3 This
way of avoiding the Berlin
endgame is starting to
become the more fashionable
treatment against the Berlin
though 4.0‑0 still heavily
outnumbers it on the
database. 4...Bc5 5.Nc3
At an adjacent board
5.Bg5 was being played by
Carlsen against Wesley So.
5...0‑0 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.h3
Nd7 8.Be3 Bd6 9.Ne2
9.Qd2 c5 10.0‑0 Nb8 11.Nh2
Nc6 was the continuation in
Adams-Caruana at the
Gashimov Memorial tournament
in Shamkir in 2015 and ended
in a fairly uneventful draw.
9...Re8 9...c5 10.Ng3
has been played for White by
So and Karjakin. 10.g4!?
Aggressive intent from
Caruana, though it could be
said to weaken kingside
squares and make it
impossible to castle on that
side.
No matter: White intends to
castle on the other side.
10...Nc5 11.Ng3 Ne6 12.Nf5
Engines tend to favour
Black but this may be
because they value bishops
above knights rather more
than is strictly logical.
12...c5 13.h4
(diagram)
GM Simon Williams is not on
commentary duty at the
Classic, busy playing his
own chess in the open
tournament, but I can easily
imagine him getting animated
at the sight of this h-pawn
being launched down the
board. And rightly so – it’s
good, brave chess from
Caruana. 13...a5 14.h5
There goes ‘Harry’ - I’m
starting to channel my own
internal GingerGM. It feels
good. 14...Ra6 The
rook keeps a wary eye on
what’s happening on the
other side of the board.
15.Qd2 Nd4 16.Rh3 Bf8
17.0‑0‑0 Be6 18.Kb1 f6
I’ve a feeling that most
amateurs, including me,
would be thinking “he’s
attacking me on the kingside
so I ought to be countering
on the queenside and play
18...b5 or perhaps 18...a4.
Anand prefers to make a
precautionary move on the
kingside, though it might
also be viewed as a target
for White’s pawn front to
chip at. These are all
difficult positional
decisions which engines
can’t necessarily help you
with. But perhaps
the scary new AI chess
engine AlphaZero
could, given the odd ten
minutes or so to think about
it. 19.c3 Nxf3 20.Rxf3 c4
21.Qc2 Watching this in
real time, with benefit of
silicon, I favoured 21.d4
but after 21...exd4 22.Bxd4
c5 23.Be3 Qxd2 24.Rxd2 a4
and White has nothing
special. The e4–pawn looks a
bit vulnerable. 21...cxd3
22.Rxd3 Qc8 23.g5 White
forces open the g-file,
which proves to be highly
advantageous later, though
it perhaps shouldn’t have
been had Black played
better. 23...fxg5 24.Bxg5
Bf7 25.h6 White is
determined to open up the
g-file for future
operations. He’s playing
with great self-confidence,
perhaps buoyed up by his win
of the previous day.
25...gxh6 26.Bc1 The
equation is simply: White
has given up a pawn but it
is only doubled and on the
edge of the board. His king
is reasonably safe but his
opponent’s potentially
vulnerable, though not at
this exact moment in time.
It looks like a good value
sac but will need accurate
following up. 26...Qe6
Black has counterplay
and here he forces a
weakening of White’s
queenside pawn structure.
27.b3 a4 28.c4 axb3 29.axb3
Now Black has engineered
a dangerous open file for
his rooks for himself, so
the position is
delicately balanced, with
all three results still
possible. 29...Qc6
30.Rg3+ Kh8 31.Rd1 b5
(diagram)
32.c5 Instead
32.Bb2 is the engine’s
favourite and, after
32...bxc4, the surprising
33.Rd8!? when I’ll leave the
reader to work out the
various tactics available
should Black be unwise
enough to capture anything.
But Black can continue
blithely with 33...Ra5 when
the computer register +0.00
and equality. 32...b4?!
Anand thought for six of
his remaining 24 minutes on
this but both players
thought it was the start of
the slide for Black.
32...Qxc5 33.Qxc5 Bxc5
34.Rd7 Bg6 35.Bxh6 Bf8 is
nothing special for White.
“After 32...b4 all my moves
were blunders,” said a
despondent Vishy. 33.Bb2
Bg6? 33...Ra5 is the
only way to go, though White
again has the scary 34.Rd8!
when Black must play
34...Qxc5 35.Rxe8 Qxc2+
36.Kxc2 Bxe8 37.f4 Bg6
38.fxe5 which is maybe not
as bad as it looks.
34.Rd5 After this, Black
is probably just lost
because the threats to e5.
34...Qb5 If
34...Bxf5? 35.Rxe5! is
devastating. 35.Rg1 c6
35...Bg7 36.Nxg7 Kxg7
37.f4! is a winner.
36.Rxe5 Rxe5 37.Bxe5+ Kg8
38.Bd4 38.Bb2, preparing
to get the queen to d8 via
d2, is more conclusive.
38...Kf7 39.Nh4 1‑0
(diagram)
Caruana was
surprised by Anand’s
resignation at this point
but it is clear that White
should win fairly quickly as
Black can’t really prevent
inroads into his kingside in
a move or two.
That turned out to be the
game of the round. Often the
likeliest contender for this
unofficial title is
identifiable quite early in
proceedings but in round
five the best tip for the
title would have been
Aronian-Vachier-Lagrave
which was quite lively and
favoured the Frenchman for
much of its course. He gave
up two pawns for a dangerous
counter-attack but nothing
concrete or convincing
emerged and he settled for a
repetition when his winning
chances appeared to have
ebbed away.
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Levon Aronian vs
Maxime
Vachier-Lagrave
looked good for the
Frenchman but he
couldn’t land the
coup de grâce |
(Photo Lennart
Ootes) |
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We witnessed our
first Magnus grind of the
tournament as the world champion
attempted to apply thumbscrews
to Wesley So but last year’s
Classic winner hung in there and
drew. The opening was a Ruy
Lopez, Berlin Defence, as
previously mentioned in the
notes above and soon became a
game of manoeuvre. But Magnus’s
opponents seem more confident of
keeping him at bay when he
attempts to torture them and
Wesley avoided all the snares
set for him in a long game of 68
moves.
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Carlsen ground away
at So but the US
player’s defences
held (Photo
Lennart Ootes) |
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The two Russians,
Nepomniachtchi and Karjakin,
played a Classical Nimzo-Indian
which only deviated from known
moves on move 16 in a broadly
symmetrical, lifeless sort of
position. Adams-Nakamura was a
Dragon Sicilian and slightly
more enterprising, featuring an
early ...d5 and following a
Caruana-Nakamura game from 2015
for about 14 moves, and known
lines till about move 20, by
which time a fairly solid
position had emerged. The draw
was agreed on move 32.
Scores after Round 5: Caruana
3˝, Adams, Aronian, Carlsen,
Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi, So,
Vachier-Lagrave 2˝, Anand,
Karjakin 2.
Wednesday was a rest day in
the British KO Championship, in
which David Howell holds a lead
over Luke McShane, having drawn
the first game and won the
second. They resume on Thursday
when the Classicists are
enjoying their own day of rest.
The two players on 5/5
overnight in the London FIDE
Open, Hrant Melkumyan (Armenia)
and Jahongir Vakhidov
(Uzbekistan) drew their sixth
round game and have now been
caught on 5˝/6 by Jonathan
Hawkins of England who beat
Matthieu Cornette of France.
Thursday 7 December is a
REST
DAY in the
London Classic elite
event: other festival
competitions continue at the
venue. Round six of the London
Classic takes place on
Friday 8
December at 16.00 UK time.
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Star poker player
Liv Boeree paid
a visit to the
tournament and told
Maurice Ashley about
her love for chess |
(Photo Lennart
Ootes) |
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Replay All Round 5 Games
Round 5 Photos by Lennart
Ootes
Round 5 Photos by
Spectrum Studios
Photos from the @london_chess
Twitter stream by Lennart
Ootes and John Saunders
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