First thread on LCC 2012 ?

[PeterTurland]

Judit Polgar is being interviewed on Women's hour on BBC radio 4, in a little while.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I thought I'd try to provoke some discussion of what we have seen so far:

Content-wise - perhaps this is the best edition yet; I doubt that the percentage of decided games has previously been higher, and there have been a number of hard fought games where even at move 50 it has still been hard to call the result. McShane v Aronian yesterday was an absolute classic.

Whether this is really because of the 3-1-0 system still seems completely speculative to me, given that in the main only fighting players are invited in the first place. It certainly has not made any difference in the case of the one invitee who does seem to need more incentive to fight these days (Yes. Him. The World Champion, who deserves all the criticism he is getting for yesterday's game v Kramnik)

It is interesting that the two elite players who were invited for the first edition - Carlsen and Kramnik - were the players who took turns to win the subsequent editions too, and it seems that one of them will win this year as well. Having the world champion and the world number 2 (Aronian) in the field doesn't seem to disturb them, though Naka made a serious bid last year.

For the first time we have an English challenger who is not McShane. Adams will need to beat one of the top foreign players to seriously challenge for the top - Carlsen has already beaten Aronian and Kramnik has beaten Naka - but an unbeaten +2 or +3 score looks possible. He has a good record v McShane, but will need to survive his game v Carlsen.

Carlsen seems to have that extra psychological something even against the very top players in the world. Something out of nothing, even slightly less than nothing, was manufactured v Aronian, just as it is against everyone else. He has 1.5/2 v Aronian this year with white from positions where he ought only to have made one draw. For the second time in LCC he held the Black draw v Kramnik despite a bad opening. It actually seems to me that if he were to play a match against anyone older than him, he would win much more easily than is predicted by those who say that he is a tournament player with no match experience.

Gawain Jones has looked better - moreover, more confident - with each game. Absolutely anyone other than Carlsen might have had real problems with the brave queen sacrifice yesterday. It is still hard to imagine him winning a game but a draw with Anand would be no great surprise, even though he is probably the one player in the field whom Anand will feel quite confident of beating.

[Andrew Collins]

Have the Fide Open Games frozen again? I was watching via play chess, but don't seem to be getting any more updated boards. I don't see a link on the Official page either for the live games

[Carl Hibbard]

Have the Fide Open Games frozen again? I was watching via play chess, but don't seem to be getting any more updated boards. I don't see a link on the Official page either for the live games

http://www.londonchessclassic.com/live.fideop.htm

The server looks alright but I am checking

[Carl Hibbard]

Have the Fide Open Games frozen again? I was watching via play chess, but don't seem to be getting any more updated boards. I don't see a link on the Official page either for the live games

Yes coverage is broken but it's an upload issue from site

[Carl Hibbard]

Have the Fide Open Games frozen again? I was watching via play chess, but don't seem to be getting any more updated boards. I don't see a link on the Official page either for the live games

It is back working again now

[Andrew Collins]

well that was fixed quickly! but I seemed to of missed most of the action

[Carl Hibbard]

well that was fixed quickly! but I seemed to of missed most of the action

No, it stopped working at 17:48:48 and restarted at 19:18:10

Logs reflect the fact that the DGT software spotted Dave wandering off for something to eat and promptly crashed

It's a guess but probably not far off

[Carl Hibbard]

It has stopped again from site

[Andy Howie]

Sorry

Wireless connection kept dropping on me

[Carl Hibbard]

Sorry

Wireless connection kept dropping on me

Gone again sorry

[Carl Hibbard]

Or the broadcast has finished

There seems to be to be some very strange issue with the latest Chrome doing a refresh on the flash object?

[Andy Howie]

Thats because all the games finished. Time to battle through the crowds heading to Stamford bridge...

[David Robertson]

This should teach people.

Jonathan Rogers tries to start an intelligent conversation. And, guess what, the termites emerge to destroy all possibility

[Graham Borrowdale]

A few comments on Jonathan Roger's interesting post (why anybody would go to Stamford Bridge when the result of the 'other' game was a forgone conclusion is beyond me):

I thought I'd try to provoke some discussion of what we have seen so far:

Content-wise - perhaps this is the best edition yet; I doubt that the percentage of decided games has previously been higher, and there have been a number of hard fought games where even at move 50 it has still been hard to call the result. McShane v Aronian yesterday was an absolute classic.

Whether this is really because of the 3-1-0 system still seems completely speculative to me, given that in the main only fighting players are invited in the first place. It certainly has not made any difference in the case of the one invitee who does seem to need more incentive to fight these days (Yes. Him. The World Champion, who deserves all the criticism he is getting for yesterday's game v Kramnik)

Its difficult to disagree with that. While the percentage of decisive games is not the only measure of how good a tournament is, all games seem to have been hard-fought. At one point I thought McShane might even win that ending.

It is interesting that the two elite players who were invited for the first edition - Carlsen and Kramnik - were the players who took turns to win the subsequent editions too, and it seems that one of them will win this year as well. Having the world champion and the world number 2 (Aronian) in the field doesn't seem to disturb them, though Naka made a serious bid last year.

Again difficult not to agree, but I think this says more about the rating system - for example, is Aronian really a better player than Kramnik because he has a few more Elo points?

For the first time we have an English challenger who is not McShane. Adams will need to beat one of the top foreign players to seriously challenge for the top - Carlsen has already beaten Aronian and Kramnik has beaten Naka - but an unbeaten +2 or +3 score looks possible. He has a good record v McShane, but will need to survive his game v Carlsen.

Yes, good to see Adams doing well so far, I hope it continues

Carlsen seems to have that extra psychological something even against the very top players in the world. Something out of nothing, even slightly less than nothing, was manufactured v Aronian, just as it is against everyone else. He has 1.5/2 v Aronian this year with white from positions where he ought only to have made one draw. For the second time in LCC he held the Black draw v Kramnik despite a bad opening. It actually seems to me that if he were to play a match against anyone older than him, he would win much more easily than is predicted by those who say that he is a tournament player with no match experience.

It would be interesting to see Carlsen take on Kramnik in a match. Whether the apparent psychological advantage he seems to be able to conjure up in these tournaments, which seem to earn him several additional half points from nothing each time, would translate to additional half points in a one on one match is not as clear to me. I expect I would be proved wrong, but I would like to see him play a top level match.