London Chess Classic - games only

[Alex Holowczak]

Oh. How disappointing. The PGN file seems to be empty. Can anyone else manage to get that game score? It looks like they are not available yet. Probably being entered as we speak (er, type, you know what I mean).

I've made it as far as board 25 of the FIDE Open for yesterday. Tim Dickinson and Loz Cooper are doing 57 onwards between them. We're about 1 round behind; we've never really caught up. Given the number of inputters and the number of games, I don't think we ever will.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Oh. How disappointing. The PGN file seems to be empty. Can anyone else manage to get that game score? It looks like they are not available yet. Probably being entered as we speak (er, type, you know what I mean).

I've made it as far as board 25 of the FIDE Open for yesterday. Tim Dickinson and Loz Cooper are doing 57 onwards between them. We're about 1 round behind; we've never really caught up. Given the number of inputters and the number of games, I don't think we ever will.

Oh, it was on board 3 or 4, so should be in those ones. Unless you are waiting for entire rounds to be complete before uploading. Many thanks for the work done by the game inputters. I wouldn't do that if you paid me! (Well, if you paid me a lot I might).

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Two Black wins will mean that he a good chance of winning any tiebreak. The "but" is that he now has two days off, and I doubt that this will help.

McShane is not the only one to get two days off in a row. That is also the case for Aronian. The rest day kind of makes sense in an all-play-all tournament with even numbers, but with odd numbers it can be a bit strange. The pattern of play for all nine participants is:

Short: BYE, 3 games, REST, 5 games
Anand: 1 game, BYE, 2 games, REST, 5 games
Kramnik: 2 games, BYE, 1 game, REST, 5 games
Aronian: 3 games, BYE, REST, 5 games
McShane: 4 games, REST, BYE, 4 games
Carlsen: 4 games, REST, 1 game, BYE, 3 games
Nakamura: 4 games, REST, 2 games, BYE, 2 games
Adams: 4 games, REST, 3 games, BYE, 1 game
Howell: 4 games, REST, 4 games, BYE

If anything, McShane has the most balanced schedule, with two blocks of four games that he can concentrate on as two mini-tournaments. The other most balanced schedules appear to be Howell's (though less so in the sense that he can't play for a result in the final round) and Short and Aronian (two blocks of 3 and 5 games).

The others have horrible stutters in their schedules and big changes in rhythms. Anand and Kramnik both have 3 games in 5 days and then 5 games in 5 days. Carlsen has two blocks of 4 and 3 games either side of 1 game in three days. Adams' schedule is similar to Carlsen's in that it is two blocks of 4 and 3 games, followed by a single hanging game at the end. Having to wait a full day to play your last round game can't be fun. Nakamura's schedule of 4 games, break, 2 games, break, 2 games, isn't too bad.

Of course, the players also have to do a bit of commentary on the day they have a bye, so it is not really a rest day. And different players react/cope differently to such schedules, but it does look a bit imbalanced to me.

[Nick Ivell]

I was shocked by Adams' listless opening against Short. Danny King called Be3 a typical Mickey move, but surely Black's structural edge was obvious, once he had developed his pieces? I thought the opening was terrible for White.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I fully agree with Nick. I can only add that Adams' previous White game was just as bad (anaemic, as I said earlier) - how on earth could playing on a pawn down for nothing be better than accepting an unclear sacrifice? I did wonder yesterday whether he might be ill ("a lot of it going around"). Can anyone remember the last time Adams lost consecutive White games? It was also his first loss ever v Luke and his first loss v Short since, I don't know, 1997 I suppose.

[David Sedgwick]

I'll take the opportunity to make a safe prediction - Howell - McShane will be decided in a crazy time scramble!

Watching the Howell-McShane time scramble was painful. Howell had only seconds left when he resigned after Qg5+. I'm sure many in the audience were trying to work out what was going on, but were being left behind by the flurry of moves.

Not to mention the arbiter who was desperately trying to watch the clock and record the moves. It all got a bit too much for me, but McShane confirmed afterwards that Howell resigned before his flag fell.

[Krishna Shiatis]

The games have begun!

Anand is playing the Dragon - will it be do or die? Has he really been prepping this seriously or is this a diversion as he feels he can not win the tournament now?

[Krishna Shiatis]

Why has David stopped so early for a think?

[Ola Winfridsson]

Why has David stopped so early for a think?

Don't know, but the English is one of those openings where you are thrown out of your comfort zone the quickest, in my experience. Despite it not being as popular as many other openings, already as early as the early 1980s, the US IM John Watson published a four volume manual on the English opening. It's not an opening where you bash out 25-30 moves before you start thinking - it's quite a tricky and demanding opening (both for Black and White).

[IM Jack Rudd]

The big rating clawback starts here:

[Event "London Classic Open"][Site "Olympia Conference Centre"][Date "2011.12.08"][Round "6.47"][White "Rudd, Jack"][Black "Bryant, Jonathan"][Result "1-0"]1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ndf3 cxd4 8.cxd4 a5 9.Bd3 a4 10.Ne2 Nb6 11.O-O g6 12.g4 h5 13.h3 Be7 14.Kg2 Bd7 15.Ng3 Nc4 16.f5 gxf5 17.gxf5 h4 18.fxe6 Bxe6 19.Nf5 Bxf5 20.Bxf5 Qb6 21.Rb1 N6a5 22.Qxa4+ Qc6 23.Qd1 b5 24.Bf4 Nb7 25.b3 Rxa2+ 26.Kh1 Nb2 27.Qe2 Qc3 28.Qxb5+ Kf8 29.Rbc1 1-0

[Jonathan Bryant]

The big rating clawback starts here ....

I rather feared that your generosity to those less elo-fortunate than yourself was not going to continue

[benedgell]

Carlsen's got through one of his toughest games with a draw, whilst Short is losing, and Howell's lost. Have to assume a player of Kramnik's calabre will beat Adams from the position they're in.

[Ola Winfridsson]

Why has David stopped so early for a think?

I don't know if you're following the video post mortem, Krishna, but both Hikaru and David pointed out that they were pretty much thrown onto their own devices after 11...d5, and David said he couldn't really remember the theoretical recommendations and therefore had to spend some time formulating a plan.

Carlsen's got through one of his toughest games with a draw, whilst Short is losing, and Howell's lost. Have to assume a player of Kramnik's calabre will beat Adams from the position they're in.

I feel a bit sorry for Nigel, because he was doing well for a goodish while, but it seems as as if he began losing the thread somewhere around 25.Qe7.

[Nick Ivell]

I fully agree with Nick. I can only add that Adams' previous White game was just as bad (anaemic, as I said earlier) - how on earth could playing on a pawn down for nothing be better than accepting an unclear sacrifice? I did wonder yesterday whether he might be ill ("a lot of it going around"). Can anyone remember the last time Adams lost consecutive White games? It was also his first loss ever v Luke and his first loss v Short since, I don't know, 1997 I suppose.

Be3 was an admission of defeat. Lousy pawn structure and a knight without targets. Anaemic is putting it politely! I liked Black's ...f6; Nigel excels in such positions.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Looks like 3-0 to the foreigners. Can't we go back to the English beating each other with Black?