London Chess Classic 2015

[Richard Bates]

Since they've got the facility to have a playoff tomorrow (in the event of a MVL victory), I can't believe they aren't holding the final LCC playoff tomorrow. It's not very fair on the players, particularly as it could be for £150k! Could probably get some added press coverage as well.

[Martin Benjamin]

Since they've got the facility to have a playoff tomorrow (in the event of a MVL victory), I can't believe they aren't holding the final LCC playoff tomorrow. It's not very fair on the players, particularly as it could be for £150k! Could probably get some added press coverage as well.

Earlier on the live broadcast, Malcolm Pein stated that if a further play-off for the Grand Tour was required, it would take place immediately after the LCC play-off, which was followed by some discussion on the fairness.

Edit: Although the website home page has it as starting at 2pm tomorrow (if needed).

[Tim Harding]

Tablebase shows Maxime cracked at the end of the first playoff game.
50...Kd6 was ok; 50...h2 was also ok. Commentators (including Grischuk) recommended 50...Rf1 which loses.
Next move Maxime still had a draw with 51...h2 or some R moves on first rank (for horizontal checks I guess) but 51...Rf1 lost and Carlsen blitzed out the win although he had less than a minute.

[NickFaulks]

It's always been obvious that Carlsen was the hoped-for winner of the GCT, but when Grischuk was staring at a forced draw in the final round it wasn't clear how this could be achieved.

[Mick Norris]

Since they've got the facility to have a playoff tomorrow (in the event of a MVL victory), I can't believe they aren't holding the final LCC playoff tomorrow. It's not very fair on the players, particularly as it could be for £150k! Could probably get some added press coverage as well.

Even worse for MVL, beating Giri in the playoff doesn't count for finishing positions in the LCC, so he finishes behind Giri - this drops him in the GCT from 3rd (which is a qualifying place for next year's tour) to 4th (which isn't)

The top 3 that qualify are Carlsen, Giri & Aronian

This means MVL doesn't qualify for the 2016 GCT, as So gets the last rating spot (with Kramnik, Nakamura, Caruana, Anand & Topalov)

OK, MVL I think was only in the 2015 GCT because Kramnik declined an invite

Chess mind not happy

chess.com from which Giri

Black in Armageddon is basically an advantage

and there is also

The dates for the 2016 Grand Chess Tour are already known: Norway Chess 16-29 April, Sinquefield Cup 19 August-2 September, London Chess Classic 30 November-13 December. The organizers have stated that they will try to learn from mistakes and improve the tiebreak system next year.

[LawrenceCooper]

Maybe overall game points is the fairest, although that doesn't rule out the need for a tie-break or play-off. The only reason I can think that this wasn't used was that they didn't want a player to top the tour without winning any of the three events eg scores of 5 and 5.5.

On game points there would have been a rather different result:

Giri 16, Nakamura 15, MVL 14.5, Aronian & Carlsen 14, Topalov 13.5, Anand 13, Grischuk 12.5, Caruana 12, Adams 4.5, Hammer & So 3.

[NickFaulks]

Chess mind not happy

Compulsory reading. MVL was the star of London, arguably of the whole tour, yet as a result of an inexplicable incident in a game in which he was not involved and brutal tie-break regulations he isn't even back next year.

[Ray Sayers]

Rules are rules. The players signed up to them.

For the record, I think MVL deserved the wildcard and it would be a travesty if he didn't get it.

[Mick Norris]

Maybe overall game points is the fairest, although that doesn't rule out the need for a tie-break or play-off. The only reason I can think that this wasn't used was that they didn't want a player to top the tour without winning any of the three events eg scores of 5 and 5.5.

You could give a bonus game point or 3 for winning an event?

[Mick Norris]

Rules are rules. The players signed up to them.

True, and it seems the process followed was specified in the player contract (even if the GCT website gave the wrong info )

For the record, I think MVL deserved the wildcard and it would be a travesty if he didn't get it.

The wildcards for 2016 are decided by the organisers, you wouldn't expect them to offer a wildcard for their own event to a non-native player - Norway held a qualification this year, and may do so again - St Louis offered it to So, and may choose another US player - London may go for Mickey again

[MartinCarpenter]

It was definitely a bit brutal yesterday.

Not sure about net game points over the three tournaments being the best tie break? If you want to treat them as important discrete events in their own right then you want to make sure that people are motivated to take risks in order to finish as highly as possible in each individual event. Don't think you'd want to over reward one huge tournament either.

Not sharing out the tour points for people finishing on equal points in a given tournament seems considerably more debatable.

[Tim Harding]

For the record, I think MVL deserved the wildcard and it would be a travesty if he didn't get it.

As pointed out by others, the wild cards are decided by the tournament organisers, but I think the London wild card should go to MVL.

He was the real star this year (especially for the tiebreak comeback against Giri) and has been robbed by the Grand Tour rule that Giri was still placed above him for the tournament.

Credit to Adams for drawing nine games in which he was outrated but I don't want to have to see him do it again.

I suspect, though, that they will be under pressure to give the wild card to a British player. In that case the vote should go to Howell who will at least provide some drama...

[Chris Rice]

[/quote]I suspect, though, that they will be under pressure to give the wild card to a British player. In that case the vote should go to Howell who will at least provide some drama...[/quote]

After seeing Luke destroy the field at the Super rapid over the weekend including a win over Howell he looks to be better than ever so my vote would be for him though Howell and Adams are definitely worthy too.

[Carl Hibbard]

McShane maybe?

[Mick Norris]

For the record, I think MVL deserved the wildcard and it would be a travesty if he didn't get it.

As pointed out by others, the wild cards are decided by the tournament organisers, but I think the London wild card should go to MVL.

He was the real star this year (especially for the tiebreak comeback against Giri) and has been robbed by the Grand Tour rule that Giri was still placed above him for the tournament.

Credit to Adams for drawing nine games in which he was outrated but I don't want to have to see him do it again.

I suspect, though, that they will be under pressure to give the wild card to a British player. In that case the vote should go to Howell who will at least provide some drama...

Howell won the British KO, so you could retrospectively treat that as a qualifier, although actually having a qualifying event would be more fun, like the Norwegians do