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A brief scan of the Round 1 pairings of this unbelievably strong open reveals Luke McShane on Board 39.

He seems to have played a lot of chess in the last few months - is this a return to professional chess??

Matthew Peat wrote:A brief scan of the Round 1 pairings of this unbelievably strong open reveals Luke McShane on Board 39.

He seems to have played a lot of chess in the last few months - is this a return to professional chess??

Yes, he's been playing chess again for at least six months and has played at the Staunton, European Team, London Chess Classic, Rilton Cup etc He's also available for Olympiads/European Team for the forseeable future which is great news.

kamsky in a spot of bother?

http://www.aeroflotchess.com/online/

lots of boards covered.

John Wright wrote:kamsky in a spot of bother?

http://www.aeroflotchess.com/online/

lots of boards covered.

The website's been down for quite a while although there are some games on icc.

Luke was on 1.5/2, but today he lost with White to Cheparinov, puffing around in a Catalanish position, losing the initiative then shedding pawns-a big contrast to that wonderful miniature in the European teams when Luke took the same opponent apart in 20-odd moves.

The player who really impresses at Aeroflot is Le Quang Liem from Vietnam, who is not 19 till next month and is rising through the high 2600s extremely fast.

He is alone on 3/3 after beating No 2 seed Bacrot and Bu Xiangzhi both by strikingly dynamic open play. A teenager to watch.....

Interesting pairing for Luke today, Black to Kamsky.

Luke has chosen the Berlin, which he should know well having drawn with Anand in the Bundesliga and defeating it as White in Aeroflot round 2. Meanwhile, Le Quang Liem was in another street brawl, this time against Cheparinov, from the unlikely genesis of a mainline Bf5 Caro, where Chep played a rare g4!? gambit, but it has since simplified to an endgame where Chep looks better.

Luke has level material in a rooks and opposite bishops ending, should draw soon.

Quang Liem drew and since his compatriot 19-year-old Ngoc Nguyen won on board 2 there are now two teenagers from Vietnam, a small and isolated chess nation, leading the world's strongest open with 3.5/4. They will meet tomorrow.

This evening Luke is still grinding away after 81 moves, trying to make something out of a minuscule advantage against France's Marie Sebag, who can invoke the 50-move rule at move 112.....

Later-now move 114 but its down to N+4 v bad bishop +4, Luke performing knight cartwheels for the last 15 moves to try to confuse the mademoiselle.

Leonard Barden wrote:This evening Luke is still grinding away after 81 moves, trying to make something out of a minuscule advantage against France's Marie Sebag, who can invoke the 50-move rule at move 112.....

Later-now move 114 but its down to N+4 v bad bishop +4, Luke performing knight cartwheels for the last 15 moves to try to confuse the mademoiselle.

Although the moves aren't coming up on the board the game info shows that Luke won in 148 moves

He's Black to Bu Xiangzhi tomorrow.

[quote="LozCooper Although the moves aren't coming up on the board the game info shows that Luke won in 148 moves [/quote]

Seems Sebag could still draw at moves 128 and 130.

Luke has now had two 140+ move games in less than three months (163 v Short at the London Classic). I am wondering if this is a record for serious tournaments and whether any Forumite with a database can check it out.

Hello Leonard

For games of more than 140 moves:-

I Cheparinov managed 2 games 2 days apart at Corus in 2005 according to my database.

I Cheparinov v A Stefanova 1-0 : 23/1/2005
I Onischuk v I Cheparinov 1/2 - 1/2 : 25/1/2005

I suspect this is a record.

K Toma managed 2 games 3 days apart in 2008 in the Polish ch

Pilnik had 2 in the same event, Mar del Plata in 1950 but I dont have the exact dates
Susan Arkell had 1 in 1990 and 1 in 1991 but I dont have the exact dates

There are more recent games of over 140 moves than prior to 1995 which probably shows the effect of increment mode. It is also possible that my database does not show all the moves for games played under QPF, so some showed with fewer moves could also be above 140. Apart from correspondence games, Internet, rapid or blitz no player has played 3 games lasting longer than 140 moves but again some of the final moves may be omitted.

Luke drew against Bu Xiangzhi in 88 moves of heroic defence. The Chinese GM chose a quiet (Bg5/Nbd2) system against the King's Indian, and got a small but nagging and persistent edge which continued into a rook ending where he threatened to be a pawn up with the active rook. Luke fought very resourcefully and eventually got down to rook and one against rook and two, with Bu's extra pawn on a6 with his rook in front of it, and finally to rook against Luke's f pawn on the seventh-draw!

Tomorrow he's White against former Russian champion Alexander Motylev (2697).

Looks to me as if a strange manoeuvre more appropriate to a Sainsbury’s car park would have won for Bu, Xiangzhi 67.Kb7 ( Instead of Rb5 ) looks to be winning eg.

67. Kb7 Rb3+ (67... Re7+ 68. Kb6 Re6+ 69. Ka5 Re5+ 70. Rb5 Re8 71. a7 Ra8 72. Ka6 Kg6 73. Rb8 Rxa7+ 74. Kxa7 Kg5 75. Kb6)

68. Ka8 (Parking the K on a8 looks very odd) Ra3 69. a7 {even odder) f5 (69... Ra2 70.Kb7 Rb2+ 71. Kc6)

70. Rb6! (The key as it cuts off the BK from supporting the pawn later.) Re3 71. Kb7 Re7+ 72. Ka6 Re8 73. Rb8 Re6+ 74. Kb5 Re5+ 75. Kc4