London Chess Classic FIDE Open

[Joshua Gibbs]

i hope howell wins http://live.londonchessclassic.com/brit ... t-2016.php

[LawrenceCooper]

R4 (FIDE Open) English players on live boards from 16:30 today -

10. 40 GM Arkell Keith C 2447 2½ 2½ GM Maze Sebastien 2608 9
13. 44 IM Daulyte Deimante 2429 2½ 2½ GM Hawkins Jonathan 2590 13
14. 14 GM Lenderman Alex 2581 2½ 2½ GM Williams Simon K 2443 41
15. 63 IM Cox John J 2320 2½ 2½ GM Moussard Jules 2571 15
17. 20 GM Svane Rasmus 2555 2½ 2½ IM Pert Richard G 2423 47
20. 69 FM Tarhon Brian 2299 2½ 2½ IM Bellahcene Bilel 2496 27
21. 32 IM Karthikeyan P. 2474 2½ 2½ IM Buckley Graeme N 2342 59
22. 71 Paszewski Mateusz 2281 2½ 2 GM Hebden Mark L 2492 2

An excellent result for Keith and a nice mating attack to finish

[Tim Harding]

i hope howell wins http://live.londonchessclassic.com/brit ... t-2016.php

If you mean the British Knockout Championship (a different event), I hope Nigel wins the match but David Howell does seem to have winning chances in today's first game.

This thread is about the FIDE Open, where Keith Arkell has just scored a nice attacking win, not in his normal style, against French GM Sebastien Maze to move to 3.5/4.

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... 016/4/1/10

Well done Keith!

[Mick Norris]

R4 (FIDE Open) English players on live boards from 16:30 today -

10. 40 GM Arkell Keith C 2447 2½ 2½ GM Maze Sebastien 2608 9
13. 44 IM Daulyte Deimante 2429 2½ 2½ GM Hawkins Jonathan 2590 13
14. 14 GM Lenderman Alex 2581 2½ 2½ GM Williams Simon K 2443 41
15. 63 IM Cox John J 2320 2½ 2½ GM Moussard Jules 2571 15
17. 20 GM Svane Rasmus 2555 2½ 2½ IM Pert Richard G 2423 47
20. 69 FM Tarhon Brian 2299 2½ 2½ IM Bellahcene Bilel 2496 27
21. 32 IM Karthikeyan P. 2474 2½ 2½ IM Buckley Graeme N 2342 59
22. 71 Paszewski Mateusz 2281 2½ 2 GM Hebden Mark L 2492 2

An excellent result for Keith and a nice mating attack to finish

Thought he was running into difficulties too

[John McKenna]

R5 - English players on live boards today -

8. 40 GM Arkell Keith C 2447 3½ 3½ GM Lenderman Alex 2581 14
11. 43 GM Wells Peter K 2431 3 3 GM Iturrizaga Edoardo 2652 5
14. 15 GM Moussard Jules 2571 3 3 IM Houska Jovanka 2397 50
18. 27 IM Bellahcene Bilel 2496 3 3 IM Bates Richard A 2347 58
20. 29 GM Hebden Mark L 2492 3 3 FM Gedajlovic Max 2338 61
21. 64 FM Paterek Michal 2311 3 3 IM Adair James R 2489 30
22. 31 GM Hector Jonny 2488 3 3 IM Cox John J 2320 63
23. 33 IM Bellaiche Anthony 2472 3 3 FM Tarhon 2299 69

[Tim Harding]

Thought he was running into difficulties too

Yes, a nice opportunistic swindle and the tactics were not easy to calculate for either player in relatively short time. Even 2600 grandmasters are not computers. In the following I did not run the Houdini engine for long:

[Event "London Chess Classic - Open"] [Site "Olympia"] [Date "2016.12.11"] [Round "4.10"] [White "Arkell, Keith C"] [Black "Maze, Sebastien"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2447"] [BlackElo "2608"] [Annotator "Harding,T; Houdini 4"] [PlyCount "85"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. g3 d6 5. d4 O-O 6. Bg2 Nbd7 7. O-O e5 8. e4 exd4 9. Nxd4 Re8 10. h3 a6 11. Re1 Rb8 12. a4 a5 13. Ndb5 Nc5 14. Bf4 Nh5 15. Be3 b6 16. Rb1 Be6 17. Nd4 Qd7 18. Nxe6 Rxe6 19. Qc2 Rbe8 20. Rbd1 Bxc3 21. Qxc3 Qxa4 22. g4 Nf6 23. Bh6 Qb4 24. Qd4 Nb3 25. Qd3 Nd7 26. Re3 a4 27. f4 Ndc5 28. Qe2 Na5 29. Rc1 Ncb3 30. Rcc3 Nd4 31. Qd1 c5 32. f5 $5 {Swindle try that paid off.} gxf5 33. gxf5 Rxh6 34. Qg4+ Rg6 $5 (34... Kf8 $1 $17 35. Qg5 Ree6 ( 35... Rhe6 36. f6 Rxf6 37. Qxf6 Re6) 36. fxe6 Rxe6) (34... Kh8 $6 35. Rg3 Rg6 36. fxg6 fxg6 37. Qd7 Rf8 38. Qxd6 {would probably draw}) 35. fxg6 hxg6 36. e5 Rxe5 $4 (36... Qxb2 $1 37. Bd5 Qb1+ 38. Kh2 Rxe5 (38... dxe5 39. Qd7 Rf8 40. Rg3 Kg7 41. Rxg6+ Qxg6 42. Rg3 {equal says engine}) (38... Qb2+ $5 {only repeats}) 39. Bxf7+ Kg7 $1 40. Rxe5 dxe5 $17) (36... Nf5) (36... Kg7 37. Qd7 { enough to draw?}) (36... Kg7 37. Qd7 {enough to draw?}) (36... dxe5 37. Bd5 { good drawing chances (and Black must be careful)}) 37. Rxe5 dxe5 38. Bd5 Kg7 39. Qd7 Ne2+ $1 {Forcing White to make a choice at move 40} (39... Qxb2 40. Qxf7+ Kh6 41. Qf8+ {is hopeless for Black.}) 40. Kf2 {with a few seconds to spare; mate in 8.} (40. Kh2 {also wins?}) (40. Kg2 $2 Nf4+ 41. Kg3 Nxd5 $11) 40... Nxc3 41. Qxf7+ Kh6 42. Qf8+ Kg5 43. h4+ 1-0

[Tim Harding]

The live boards in the FIDE Open seem to have frozen half an hour ago?

ABOUT 6.20pm: Working again now...

[Mick Norris]

Keith has done well to hold today's game as well (albeit he may for all I know have as usual always known exactly what was going to happen in the ending)

[Mick Norris]

round 6 pairings

include:
9 58 IM Bates Richard A 2347 4 4 GM Cornette Matthieu 2597 11
12 18 GM Bogner Sebastian 2564 4 4 GM Arkell Keith C 2447 40

Good luck to Richard & Keith

Brian Tarhon has drawn with a GM and 2 IMs, and plays another IM today possible IM norm?

[John McKenna]

The tussle at the top of the FIDE Open is getting sharper with a player from India on the pinnacle with 5/5 (scored against 2 GMs, IM Jovanka Houska, 1 FM and, in R1, an untitled player).

I think GM Etienne Bacrot, the 2nd seed, may well be the eventual winner.
(Edit: Bacrot defeated Shabalov,yesterday, with white.)

GM Eltaj Safarli the 1st seed is on 4/5 after a loss, with black, to dangerman GM Alex Shabalov.

R6 top 3 boards -

1. 10 GM Bok Benjamin 2598 4½ 5 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr 2566 17
2. 16 GM Blomqvist Erik 2567 4½ 4½ GM Bacrot Etienne 2689 2
3. 5 GM Iturrizaga Edoardo 2652 4 4½ GM Schroeder Jan-Christian 2541 23

Mick's post below - with Keith, Richard & Brian - is almost a tribute to the Stones. If Charley (Storey) and Ronnie (Cohen) were on live boards we'd have a full house, but Charley isn't playing and Ronnie is playing too low.

round 6 pairings

include:
9 58 IM Bates Richard A 2347 4 4 GM Cornette Matthieu 2597 11
12 18 GM Bogner Sebastian 2564 4 4 GM Arkell Keith C 2447 40

Good luck to Richard & Keith

Brian Tarhon has drawn with a GM and 2 IMs, and plays another IM today possible IM norm?

[Nick Grey]

Bok played the Swiss Gambit in round one with a draw against Hebbes to sail to the top board for round 6.
Best wishes for all the forumites in this tournament.

[Mick Norris]

Best wishes for all the forumites in this tournament.

And indeed in any of the other LCC tournaments; from a distant perspective, actually getting to the venue if the journey involves a train would appear to be the hard bit

[John McKenna]

All too true, Mick, even by local train I'm sorry to say.

Yesterday, mine was cancelled and the next one delayed.
I made it in the end, but just before the default time of 1 hr.
After the controllers (r)ushered me in Brendan O'Gorman gave me a few words of welcome from the next board up.

Hope to do better than that (painful loss) today.

[David Robertson]

Impressive Rd 5 smack-up of a strong FRA IM by Richard Bates of this parish. Urged on by some strange choices from his opponent, the chop from 16...e4! onwards was forthright, principled, and doubtless painful

[someone might want to put the game up]

[Paul Cooksey]

[White "Bilel Bellahcene"] [Black "RIchard Bates"]1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Nb3 e5 7. Bg5 Be7 8. Qd2 O-O 9. Bxf6 Bxf6 10. Rd1 Be7 11. Nd5 Nc6 12. g3 Bg4 13. Be2 Bh3 14. Qd3 f5 15. Bf3 Bg5 16. exf5 e4 17. Bxe4 Re8 18. Ne3 Kh8 19. c3 d5 20. Qxd5 Bxe3 21. fxe3 Qe7 22. Nc5 Rad8 23. Qc4 b5 24. Qe6 Qxc5 25. Rxd8 Rxd8 26. Kf2 Rd2 27. Kf3 Ne5 28. Kf4 Rf2 29. Kg5 Qxe3 30. Kh5 Bg4 31. Kh4 g5
It is a nice game.