London Chess Classic 2013

[Simon Brown]

If Adams- Anand finishes drawn in their last group- match game, does Adams or Anand finish top?

Anand, on the basis of his higher rating?!

Or Adams, on the basis of his slight alphabetic superiority?

Neither. Lots will be drawn.

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi Jonathan,

I simply despair. How can you or none of your crowd not post a diagram.

Svilder - Rowson. (possible line)

[FEN "8/8/1P2R1p1/6kp/8/8/1r4PP/6K1 w - - 0 1"] 1. h4+ Kxh4 2. Rxg6 Rb1+ 3. Kh2 Rb2 4. b7 {4...Rxb7 allows 5.g3 mate. But...} 4... Rxg2+ {Is stalemate.}*

How did I spot that? Because on my last Blog.

http://www.redhotpawn.com/blog/blogread ... postid=154

F. Murray - C. Mcintee. SNCL 2013

R7/P7/8/7p/7k/7P/r5P1/3K4 w - - 0 1

Here I suggest White can get his King to h2 and set up a nifty swift click finish.

R7/P7/8/7p/7k/7P/r5PK/8 w - - 0 1

Which is roughly the same position as above.

It goes...

[FEN "R7/P7/8/7p/7k/7P/r5P1/3K4 w - - 0 1"] 1. Ke1 Ra1+ 2. Kf2 Ra2+ 3. Kg1 Ra1+ 4. Kh2 Ra2 {If White goes for the 'nifty swift click finish’ with as I suggested...(adding the clue - it proves you are alert.} 5. Rg8 {Black does not take the a-pawn to be mated by g3. Instead he plays...} 5... Rxg2+ {CHECK! and Rxg2 or Kxg2 is Stalemate.}

[Simon Brown]

self-destruction by Howell means that all the qualifiers are mathematically decided before the last round, I think. And indeed it is the top two seeds from each group.

Not quite I think. If Rowson doesn't lose and Sadler beats Svidler, Sadler qualifies instead of Kramnik, or there is a tie-break tomorrow morning.

[Angus French]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUEoARJ_qsA - new live stream from kingscrusher

[Jonathan Rogers]

Quite a good showing from most of the the Brits. Not so much from Luke for whom things didn't go right from the start, when he lost a game which he could have won very quickly v Anand. Howell also blew winning positions -twice - v Caruana. But for the others, Adams and Short have qualified, Sadler came close to qualifying from perhaps the toughest group and was unbeaten by both Kramnik and Svidler, Rowson also competed respectably in this group and might have qualified if he had taken Sadler's queen yesterday, while Gawain beat Judit and Gelfand today to finish on a very high note.

Predictions:

Anand-Kramnik - a slightly unfortunate QF pairing, but Anand has looked better on the whole, at least after the round one escape. ANAND in tie breaks

Svidler-Adams - who have twice played rapid in world championship KOs (honours even)! The hardest to call (for me) but let's go for a "home" victory from someone who has won world class rapid events in London before - ADAMS in tie breaks

Nakamura-Short - NAKAMURA will be delighted with this pairing

Gelfand-Caruana - Gelfad has faded a bit since the first day, Caruanan has not played as well as his results suggest, but I predict that a blunder from Gelfand will give the tie to CARUANA

[Jonathan Bryant]

Kramnik Svidler Nakamura Caruana

[Matthew Turner]

Kramnik, Svidler, Nakamura and Caruana for me too.

[Mick Norris]

Should any match in the knock-out phase be tied, there shall be a two game play-off at the rate at the rate of 10 minutes + 10 seconds per move for each player. Lots shall be drawn for the colours in the first game.

Should the players remain tied, an Armageddon game shall be played with White having 5 minutes and Black having 4 minutes, with a 3 second increment from move 61. In the event of a draw Black shall be declared the winner. Colours shall be determined by the toss of a coin, with the winner of the toss having choice of colour

According to the website (from which the above quote comes), we will have

Semi-finals:

Anand/Kramnik v Nakamura/Short
Svidler/Adams v Caruana/Gelfand

[Michael Jones]

The rest of the field should probably thank Svidler for topping the group, thus ensuring one of Anand or Kramnik will be eliminated in the QFs. Although it's still not exactly an easy pairing, Adams would probably have preferred to play Svidler rather than Kramnik!

I'll stick my neck out and say Kramnik, Adams, Nakamura and Gelfand.

[Simon Louchart]

Anand-Kramnik - a slightly unfortunate QF pairing

Indeed, it would be a perfect pairing for a final, event for a rapid games world championship.

[Michael Jones]

First blood to Adams! The endgame was probably winning anyway, but I assume allowing the rooks to be exchanged was a time trouble blunder.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

First blood to Adams! The endgame was probably winning anyway, but I assume allowing the rooks to be exchanged was a time trouble blunder.

Great news. I am intending to travel to watch the evening sessions. Hope those will be as exciting. Am hoping one of the ties goes at least to a tie-break, and maybe even an Armageddon game, as I've never seen one of those played before. Any other results in yet?

[Michael Jones]

Svidler won the return game, so they're into a tiebreak. Kramnik-Anand had a fairly quiet draw in their first game, Kramnik took him apart with black in the second to qualify. Gelfand-Caruana first game drawn, Naka beat Short with black.

[Simon Brown]

OK, I'll go first. Kramnik-Adams final, won by Kramnik.

[Michael Jones]

I'll go with Adams and Nakamura.