London Chess Classic 2015

[Wayne Komer]

Re: London Chess Classic 2015

London Chess Classic 2015

Round 9

December 13, 2015

The starting commentators are Danny King and Nigel Davies. Nigel seems to be one of a number of English grandmasters (25 presently active). He was born in 1960 and is described as “a popular and prolific chess author and an experienced coach”. In a 2008 interview he said that he came from a very musical family but didn’t take to a particular instrument but liked chess from the start.

He was asked in that interview if he could invite any four people, living or dead, chess players or not, to a fantasy dinner party, who would they be and why?

He answered that they would be Margaret Thatcher, Tammy Bruce (an American authoress), Baron Eugene Fersen and Emanuel Lasker.

And that is all I know about Nigel Davies!
________

Malcom Pein comes in to talk about the various tournament scenarios if Giri and MVL draw and Grischuk or Carlsen win. In many, tie-break games could go on until three in the morning.

All the games:

London Chess Classic 2015
Round 9, Dec. 13, 2015
Adams, Michael – Caruana, Fabiano
C78 Ruy Lopez, Moeller Defence

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Bc5 6.c3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a4 Bg4 9.d3 O-O 10.Nbd2 Na5 11.Ba2 b4 12.h3 Bh5 13.Nc4 Nxc4 14.Bxc4 bxc3 15.bxc3 c6 16.g4 Bg6 17.Bg5 d5 18.Ba2 dxe4 19.Nxe5 exd3 20.Nxg6 hxg6 21.Qf3 Qc7 22.Rad1 Qe5 23.Bxf6 Qxf6 24.Rxd3 Rfd8 25.Qxf6 gxf6 26.Rfd1 Be7 27.Rxd8+ Rxd8 28.Rxd8+ Bxd8 29.Kf1 a5 30.Ke2 g5 31.Bb1 Bc7 32.Be4 Be5 33.Kd3 c5 34.Kc4 Kg7 35.f3 1/2-1/2

Round 9, Dec. 13, 2015
Aronian, Levon – Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
A30 English, Symmetrical

1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.e3 Nf6 5.d4 e4 6.d5 exf3 7.dxc6 dxc6 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.gxf3 Kc7 10.b3 Be7 11.Bb2 Rd8 12.h4 g6 13.Bh3 Bxh3 14.Rxh3 Kd7 15.Rd1+ Ke6 16.Rxd8 Bxd8 17.Ke2 Rb8 18.Nb1 b5 19.Nd2 Ba5 20.Bxf6 Bxd2 21.Kxd2 Kxf6 22.Kc3 bxc4 23.Rh1 cxb3 24.axb3 h5 25.Ra1 g5 26.hxg5+ Kxg5 27.Rxa7 Kg6 28.Ra1 h4 29.Kc4 Rb4+ 30.Kxc5 Rxb3 31.Kxc6 Rb2 32.Rh1 Rxf2 33.Rxh4 Rxf3 1/2-1/2

Round 9, Dec. 13, 2015
Anand, Vishy – Giri, Anish
C67 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence, Open Variation

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 h5 11.Bf4 Be7 12.Rad1 Be6 13.Ng5 Rh6 14.g3 Bxg5 15.Bxg5 Rg6 16.h4 f6 17.exf6 gxf6 18.Bf4 Nxh4 19.f3 Rd8 20.Kf2 Rxd1 21.Nxd1 Nf5 22.Rh1 Bxa2 23.Rxh5 Be6 24.g4 Nd6 25.Rh7 Nf7 26.Ne3 b6 27.Ng2 Rg8 28.Bxc7 Rh8 29.Rxh8+ Nxh8 30.Ne3 Nf7 31.Bg3 Nh6 32.Bf4 Nf7 33.Bg3 Nh6 1/2-1/2

Round 9, Dec. 13, 2015
Carlsen, Magnus – Grischuk, Alexander
B51 Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky (Nimzowitsch-Rossolimo, Moscow) Attack

1.Nf3 c5 2.e4 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.O-O a6 5.Bd3 Ngf6 6.Re1 b5 7.c4 g5 8.Nxg5 Ne5 9.Be2 bxc4 10.Nc3 Rb8 11.Rf1 h6 12.Nf3 Nd3 13.Ne1 Nxb2 14.Bxb2 Rxb2 15.Bxc4 Rb4 16.Qe2 Bg7 17.Nc2 Rb6 18.Rab1 O-O 19.Rxb6 Qxb6 20.Ne3 e6 21.f4 Kh8 22.f5 a5 23.a4 Qd8 24.h3 Qe7 25.Ba6 Bxa6 26.Qxa6 Nh5 27.Rf3 Rg8 28.Nb5 Be5 29.Ng4 Qh4 30.fxe6 fxe6 31.Nxe5 dxe5 32.Qxe6 Qe1+ 33.Kh2 Rxg2+ 34.Kxg2 Qxd2+ 35.Kg1 Qe1+ 36.Rf1 Qe3+ 37.Rf2 Qe1+ 38.Kg2 1-0

Round 9, Dec. 13, 2015
Nakamura, Hikaru – Topalov, Veselin
C67 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence, Open Variation

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Rd1+ Ke8 10.b3 Ne7 11.Nbd2 h6 12.Nd4 Ng6 13.Bb2 Be7 14.Nc4 Nf4 15.Ne3 g6 16.g3 Ne6 17.Ne2 h5 18.a4 a5 19.Ba3 Bxa3 20.Rxa3 Ke7 21.Raa1 Nc5 22.Kg2 Re8 23.Nd4 Kf8 24.f4 Bd7 25.h3 Rad8 26.Nf3 Be6 27.g4 hxg4 28.hxg4 Bd5 29.Rh1 Ke7 30.Nxd5+ cxd5 31.Rh7 Ne6 32.Kg3 Rg8 33.Rf1 Nf8 34.Rh2 Ne6 35.Rh7 Nf8 36.Rh2 Ne6 37.Rh7 1/2-1/2

The Giri-MVL playoff is taking place at this moment and can be seen at:

http://live.londonchessclassic.com/index.php

[Wayne Komer]

Re: London Chess Classic 2015

London Chess Classic 2015

Tie-Breaks

December 13, 2015

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beats Giri

Rapid = 25 min + 5 sec.

Rapid Tie-Break 1, Dec. 13
MVL – Giri, Anish
C67 Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence, Open Variation

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. h3 Ke8 10. Nc3 h5 11. Ne2 b6 12. Rd1 Be7 13. Bg5 Bb7 14. Bxe7 Kxe7 15. Ned4 Nxd4 16. Nxd4 c5 17. Nb5 Rhc8 18. f4 Bc6 19. Nc3 Ke6 20. Kf2 h4 21. a4 Kf5 22. Ke3 Re8 23. Nd5 Rac8 24. Rd2 f6 25. Rf1 fxe5 26. fxe5+ Kg5 27. Nc3 Rxe5+ 28. Kf2 Rf8+ 29. Kg1 Rxf1+ 30. Kxf1 Rf5+ 31. Kg1 Rf4 32. Re2 Kf6 33. b3 a6 34. Nd1 Bd5 35. c4 Be6 36. a5 Rd4 37. Nf2 Bf5 38. Ra2 Rd6 39. Kf1 Ke5 40. Re2+ Kf4 41. Ra2 g5 42. Ke1 Re6+ 43. Kf1 Re3 0-1

Rapid Tie-Break 2, Dec. 13, 2015
Giri, Anish – MVL
D76 Neo-Grunfeld, 6.cxd5 Nxd5

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. g3 Bg7 6. Bg2 Nb6 7. Nf3 Nc6 8. e3 O-O 9. O-O Re8 10. b3 e5 11. Nxe5 Nxe5 12. dxe5 Bxe5 13. Bb2 Qe7 14. Qc2 c6 15. Rad1 Bg4 16. f3 Be6 17. f4 Bg7 18. e4 Rad8 19. e5 Bg4 20. Bf3 Rxd1 21. Qxd1 Rd8 22. Qe2 Bxf3 23. Rxf3 f6 24. exf6 Qxe2 25. Nxe2 Bf8 26. Bd4 Kf7 27. Rc3 Nd5 28. Rc4 Nxf6 29. Kg2 Nd5 30. Kf3 a5 31. Bc5 Bg7 32. Bd4 Bf8 33. Bc5 Bh6 34. Rd4 Bg7 35. Rd2 a4 36. Bd4 Bxd4 37. Rxd4 axb3 38. axb3 Ra8 39. Rd3 Ra2 40. h3 Rb2 41. Nd4 h5 42. f5 g5 43. Ne6 Kf6 44. Nd8 Rh2 45. Nxb7 Rxh3 46. Nd6 Rh2 47. Ke4 Re2+ 48. Kd4 Ne7 49. Kc5 g4 50. Kb6 Re5 51. Kc7 c5 52. Nc4 Rxf5 53. Rd6+ Kg5 54. Re6 Nd5+ 55. Kd6 h4 56. gxh4+ Kxh4 57. Ne5 Nf4 58. Rh6+ Kg5 59. Rh8 Rxe5 0-1


Armageddon Game Rules

- White 6 mins, Black 5 mins + 3 sec from move 61

- If game ends in draw, Black wins

- White/Black determined by coin toss.

MVL wins toss, takes Black

Armageddon Tie-Break 3, Dec. 13, 2015
Giri, Anish – Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
A05 Reti, King’s Indian Attack

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. b3 Bg7 4. Bb2 b6 5. Bg2 Bb7 6. O-O O-O 7. c4 c5 8. e3 d6 9. Qe2 Nbd7 10. Rd1 e6 11. Nc3 Qe7 12. d4 Rad8 13. Qc2 d5 14. Ne5 cxd4 15. exd4 Nxe5 16. dxe5 Ng4 17. cxd5 exd5 18. Bxd5 Nxe5 19. Qe4 Bc8 20. Re1 Bf5 21. Qe3 Qc5 22. Rad1 Bg4 23. Rb1 Bf5 24. Be4 Nd3 25. Qxc5 bxc5 26. Bxd3 Rxd3 27. Na4 Rd2 28. Bxg7 Kxg7 29. Rb2 Rfd8 30. Re2 Rd1+ 31. Kg2 c4 32. bxc4 Bd3 33. Re7 Bxc4 34. Re3 R8d6 35. a3 Bf1+ 36. Kf3 Rf6+ 37. Ke4 Re6+ 38. Kf3 Rf6+ 39. Ke4 Re6+ 40. Kf3 Rf6+ 41. Kg4 Rd4+ 0-1

Vachier-Lagrave thus wins the tiebreak vs Giri and goes on to meet Magnus Carlsen for the final.

This will start minutes from now.

If Vachier-Lagrave wins the match against Carlsen, he and Carlsen will play another play-off to decide the overall Grand Chess Tour winner at 2 pm tomorrow.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: London Chess Classic 2015

London Chess Classic

Final Tie-Break

December 13, 2015

Magnus Carlsen wins first game and takes a draw in the second vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to win both the London Tournament and the Grand Chess Tour.

London Chess Classic 2015
Rapid Tie-Break 4, Dec. 13, 2015
Carlsen, Magnus – Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
B52 Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky Attack, Sokolsky Variation

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Bd7 4. Bxd7+ Qxd7 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 g6 7. d4 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Bg7 9. f3 O-O 10. Be3 Nc6 11. Rc1 Nxd4 12. Bxd4 Rfc8 13. b3 Nh5 14. O-O Bxd4+ 15. Qxd4 Nf6 16. Rfe1 Rc7 17. Rcd1 Qc6 18. Nb5 Rd7 19. Nxa7 Qc5 20. Qxc5 dxc5 21. Nb5 Rxa2 22. e5 Rxd1 23. Rxd1 Nh5 24. g3 Rb2 25. Rd8+ Kg7 26. Re8 Rb1+ 27. Kg2 Rb2+ 28. Kg1 Rb1+ 29. Kg2 Rb2+ 30. Kh3 e6 31. Re7 Rxb3 32. Kg4 Kf8 33. Rxb7 h6 34. Rc7 f5+ 35. exf6 Nxf6+ 36. Kf4 g5+ 37. Ke5 Ne8 38. Rxc5 Re3+ 39. Kd4 Rxf3 40. Re5 Rf2 41. Rxe6 Rxh2 42. c5 h5 43. Nd6 Nxd6 44. cxd6 Kf7 45. Re3 h4 46. g4 h3 47. Ke5 Rh1 48. d7 Ke7 49. Kf5+ Kxd7 50. Kxg5 Kd6 51. Kh5 Rf1 52. Rxh3 Ke7 53. Kg6 Rf6+ 54. Kg7 Rf7+ 55. Kg6 Rf6+ 56. Kg5 Ra6 57. Rf3 1-0

London Chess Classic 2015
Rapid Tie-Break 5, Dec. 13, 2015
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime – Carlsen, Magnus
A34 English, Symmetrical, Four Knights

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 c5 3. Nf3 e6 4. e4 Nc6 5. Be2 e5 6. d3 d6 7. a3 Be7 8. b4 b6 9. O-O O-O 10. Rb1 Nd4 11. bxc5 bxc5 12. Bg5 Be6 13. Rb7 Nd7 14. Bxe7 Qxe7 15. Qa4 Nb6 16. Qa6 Bc8 17. Rxe7 Bxa6 18. Rb1 Rfb8 19. Kf1 Kf8 20. Rc7 Ne6 21. Rc6 Rd8 22. a4 Bb7 23. Rcxb6 axb6 24. Rxb6 Bc8 25. Bd1 Ra6 26. Rb2 Bd7 27. g3 Bc6 28. Ke1 Rda8 29. Ra2 Rb6 30. Kd2 g6 31. Kc1 Nd4 32. Nd2 Rb4 33. Rb2 Rab8 34. Nb5 Rxb2 35. Kxb2 Ke7 36. Kc3 Bd7 37. f4 f6 38. Nf1 exf4 39. gxf4 Ne6 40. f5 gxf5 41. Ne3 Nf4 42. exf5 Bc6 43. d4 Be4 44. d5 Ng2 45. Nxg2 Bxg2 46. Bc2 Bf3 47. Kb3 Ra8 48. Nc7 Ra7 49. Nb5 Ra8 50. Nc7 Ra7 51. Nb5 ½-½

Many of the observers think that it was unfair that Magnus sat out the first tie-break while Giri and MVL went at it.

- haha, this is going to be so controversial

- best day of the whole London classic

- Controversial for those who don't understand the rules.

- Giri is lucky he came 2nd, why complain?

- These rules are so stupid…

- UNFAIR but congratulations

(Hikaru Nakamura) - Very disappointed how these tiebreakers were supposedly only for first and bump MVL from 3rd-4th and out of the GCT in 2016

- It's not fair, but unfortunately that's how it goes. One must feel very sorry for MVL

- Final Standings of London Chess 2015

1. Carlsen 5.5
2. Giri 5.5
3. MVL 5.5
4. Aronian 5
5. Caruana 4.5
6. Adams 4.5
7. Grischuk 4.5
8. Nakamura 4
9. Anand 3.5
10. Topalov 2.5

(Alexander Grischuk) - "So Magnus is winning the series, yes? So I created a monster!"

[Wayne Komer]

Re: London Chess Classic 2015

London Chess Classic 2015

December 14, 2015

On the London last round, tie-breaks and The Grand Chess Tour

Peter Doggers has an excellent summary of the last day of competition and the playoffs:

http://schaken.chess.com/news/magnus...hess-tour-2399

A couple of extracts:

Beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in a rapid playoff, Magnus Carlsen won the 7th London Chess Classic and the inaugural Grand Chess Tour. A long day at the office it was, in Kensington Olympia, London. The London Chess Classic, and with it the first Grand Chess Tour, came to an end on Sunday night at 11:38 p. m. local time. The reason was that the tournament ended in a three-way tie between Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and the regulations had stipulated a rapid playoff. And so, 9.5 hours after the chess started, it was the world number one who emerged as the winner.

With Gary Lineker in mind, chess can be described as a game between two players and 32 pieces, and in the end Magnus Carlsen wins. The world champion came from behind (he was trailing from the very first round in Norway Chess which he lost), but won in the end.

Thanks to his win over Grischuk, Carlsen finished with the most Sonneborn-Berger points (the first two tiebreaks were all equal).

According to the Grand Chess Tour regulations this meant that Carlsen basically had secured himself a direct spot in the playoff final.

(MVL triumphed over Giri) And so the playoff final was between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Magnus Carlsen. The funny thing was that if the Frenchman would beat the world champion, the two would finish shared first in the Grand Chess Tour. Per regulations, another playoff would have to be played to determine the absolute winner, so MVL would have to beat Carlsen twice!

Giri said about this situation: “It's quite frustrating that this guy Magnus gets so extremely lucky, it's just absurd! I heard that if [MVL] wants to win, he needs to beat [Carlsen] twice. He needs to beat him one match, then they share the Grand Chess Tour Standings, and then he needs to beat him again to win the Grand Chess Tour.

Carlsen beat MVL in their match and won the tournament and the Grand Chess Tour.

Vachier-Lagrave didn't finish second in London, as you might expect, but third. A different version of the tiebreak regulations were uploaded to the Grand Chess Tour website during the last day. Originally it stated:

The play-off shall determine the winner of the tournament, the other positions in the crosstable and the distribution of the prize money.

This was changed, following the players' contract, into:

The play-off shall determine the winner of the tournament and the distribution of the first prize money.

This meant that for the rest of the crosstable (including Giri and Vachier-Lagrave) the final standings were based on Sonneborn-Berger points.
_____

Some comments:

- Looks like the Grand Chess Tour, instead of making friends for the game, has actually managed to anger existing fans. Tie break procedures, in general, should be examined, if not discarded altogether and scoring and qualification requirements for the GCT in 2016 need to be modified.

- Normally I'm not of fan of complaining about tournament systems, because every system seems to have its disadvantages. I do feel however that the way grand chess tour points were divided was simply unfair: in Norway Giri scored +2 en Carlsen -2, in Saint Louis they both scored +1 and in London they both scored +2. That means Giri scored two whole points more than Carlsen, yet he must win a tiebreak against MVL to even get the right to play Carlsen for victory in the whole Tour. Was there a problem with just adding up the points everyone scored in these three tournaments? I can't think of any, and in my opinion Giri (and other players, for example Nakamura and MVL also scored more points than Carlsen over three tournaments) has every right to feel cheated.

- This is absolutely appalling. MVL earned his ticket for next year over the board, and it took an epic exploit against Giri in extreme pressure to do it. Sure, he might not be as "bankable' as So, that's why they changed the rules on the BLOODY LAST DAY. Reeks of Kasparov's shady politics. Shame on the GCT.

- MVL played the best chess of the tournament in London. The number of games he had to go through in a single day to actually win is just ridiculous. Tie-breaks or at the very least the final should have been moved to Monday to allow sufficient rest. Forcing all these games so late dramatically affected the quality of play of all remaining contenders. Ahead by only a tiny margin (a +3 differential in the SB score), the leader - Carlsen - got away with an incredible advantage with this bye while letting the other two fight it out. MVL's 2 wins over Giri - who had not lost a single game in the entire Grand Chess Tour - was a remarkable feat in itself and shows MVL absolutely belongs in the world chess elite. With this incredible last-day confusion in the tie-breaker rule, the finalist does not even finish 2nd but 3rd on the tournament ranking! Nowhere else but in chess do we see such ridiculous regulation, no wonder we have a hard time gaining public and sponsor interest! Worse, it cost a most deserving player a chance to finish 3rd overall on the Grand Chess Tour, it cost him a lot of deserved prize money, and ultimately cost him his invitation for next year's tournament.
______

Dennis Monokroussos said the proverbial few words about the tie-breaks on his The Chess Mind site:

http://www.thechessmind.net

Having concluded my reporting on the proceedings, it's time to vent some spleen. Before doing so, it's important to note that nothing I will now say is intended to blame Magnus Carlsen or to deny that he was a deserving winner of the London Chess Classic. (I certainly don't think he's the deserving winner of the Tour, but again, that's not his fault.)

I've already noted the unfairness of the playoff procedure which forced Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to engage each other for around three or four hours (including breaks between games) while Carlsen could rest, nap and/or prepare for his tired challenger. For that matter, I don't understand why it should have been a two-stage event. Using the Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak makes sense in a Swiss system event, where players face different opponents; in a round-robin it seems to me without value.

Vachier-Lagrave got ripped off in his own special way by the Tour and its absurd policies. The London Chess Classic wasn't just important in its own right or even in its own right and for its implications for this year's Tour; it also had implications for next year's Tour invitees. Vachier-Lagrave finished tied or better with Carlsen in all three tournaments (not counting the playoff), but somehow finished fourth and off of the 2016 Tour.

[Laurentiu Grigorescu]

Re: London Chess Classic 2015

Not sure if Carlsen is extremly lucky or the other nine players are complete wussies. Magnus played average by his standards, did not win the first two tournaments, starts with 6 draws in the last one and still comes out on top (controversially or not it is another issue). This time is not he who won but the others that lost big time.
As a side note having Wesley So in this elite circuit is a bad joke, the guy is just absolutely colorless from all standpoints.