London Chess Classic FIDE Open

[Jonathan Rogers]

Win from Brian Tarhon against the Indian prodigy, who self-destructed quite dramatically in today's game, so an excellent norm chance for Brian now.

[Mick Norris]

round 7 pairings

8 35 IM Zhou Yang-Fan 2470 4½ 4½ GM Hovhannisyan Robert 2630 8
10 41 GM Williams Simon K 2443 4½ 4½ GM Istratescu Andrei 2596 12
12 45 GM Flear Glenn C 2428 4½ 4½ GM Svane Rasmus 2555 20
13 66 FM Sowray Peter J 2307 4½ 4½ IM Sadzikowski Daniel 2547 22
14 24 GM Ehlvest Jaan 2532 4½ 4½ IM Bates Richard A 2347 58

and perhaps most interesting
16 29 GM Hebden Mark L 2492 4½ 4½ FM Tarhon Brian 2299 69

which is Brian's 5th titled player, and his TPR is currently 2536

[Roger de Coverly]

Urged on by some strange choices from his opponent

It's a odd idea against the Najdorf that has become recently more popular, to play Nd4-b3 before it gets hit by .. e5.

[MartinCarpenter]

Even used by Anand in one game, which really does make one want to weep just a little.

[John McKenna]

round 7 pairings

8 35 IM Zhou Yang-Fan 2470 4½ 4½ GM Hovhannisyan Robert 2630 8
10 41 GM Williams Simon K 2443 4½ 4½ GM Istratescu Andrei 2596 12
12 45 GM Flear Glenn C 2428 4½ 4½ GM Svane Rasmus 2555 20
13 66 FM Sowray Peter J 2307 4½ 4½ IM Sadzikowski Daniel 2547 22
14 24 GM Ehlvest Jaan 2532 4½ 4½ IM Bates Richard A 2347 58

and perhaps most interesting
16 29 GM Hebden Mark L 2492 4½ 4½ FM Tarhon Brian 2299 69

which is Brian's 5th titled player, and his TPR is currently 2536

Go Brian!!

The Open's "top" (boards with players within a half point of the leader) has expanded from 3 boards to 6 - due to draws, two quick and two not so slow, on all top 4? boards in R5, yesterday!

But, the sole leader remains the same and has the white pieces -

1. 17 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr 2566 5½ 5 GM Smirin Ilya 2669 4
2. 2 GM Bacrot Etienne 2689 5 5 GM Bogner Sebastian 2564 18
3. 16 GM Blomqvist Erik 2567 5 5 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2634 6
4. 7 GM Melkumyan Hrant 2633 5 5 GM Fodor Tamas Jr 2494 28
5. 23 GM Schroeder Jan-Christian 2541 5 5 GM Bok Benjamin 2598 10
6. 1 GM Safarli Eltaj 2691 4½ 5 IM Karthikeyan P. 2474 3

[NickFaulks]

It's a odd idea against the Najdorf that has become recently more popular, to play Nd4-b3 before it gets hit by .. e5.

If 6...e5 is the best Black can do, that sort of justifies it.

[MartinCarpenter]

More than sort of I'd think - if nothing else you can go 7 Be2/Be3 back into main lines and options on top

Still, I mean black often surrenders a whole tempo on Qb6 or Bc5 in e6 Sicillians specifically in order to force Nb3.....

[Mick Norris]

round 7 pairings

8 35 IM Zhou Yang-Fan 2470 4½ 4½ GM Hovhannisyan Robert 2630 8
10 41 GM Williams Simon K 2443 4½ 4½ GM Istratescu Andrei 2596 12
12 45 GM Flear Glenn C 2428 4½ 4½ GM Svane Rasmus 2555 20
13 66 FM Sowray Peter J 2307 4½ 4½ IM Sadzikowski Daniel 2547 22
14 24 GM Ehlvest Jaan 2532 4½ 4½ IM Bates Richard A 2347 58

and perhaps most interesting
16 29 GM Hebden Mark L 2492 4½ 4½ FM Tarhon Brian 2299 69

which is Brian's 5th titled player, and his TPR is currently 2536

Go Brian!!

He seems to be doing ok at move 22, albeit Hebden has much more time

[Tim Harding]

Hebden outplayed Tarhon in the queen ending. He should not have been allowed to get a passed h-pawn.
The online engine says 32...Kg7 was necessary and 31...Kg6 (and if 32 Qxd5 Qxf2) should have drawn.

[Event "London Chess Classic - Open"] [Site "Olympia"] [Date "2016.12.14"] [Round "7.16"] [White "Hebden, Mark L"] [Black "Tarhon, Brian"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2492"] [BlackElo "2299"] [PlyCount "89"] [EventDate "2016.??.??"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. e3 c5 4. c4 cxd4 5. exd4 d5 6. Nc3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 Nc6 8. O-O Be7 9. Qe2 O-O 10. Rd1 Nd5 11. Qe4 Ncb4 12. a3 Nf6 13. Qh4 Nbd5 14. Bd3 g6 15. Bg5 Bd7 16. Nxd5 Nxd5 17. Bc4 Re8 18. Bxd5 exd5 19. Re1 Bxg5 20. Rxe8+ Qxe8 21. Nxg5 h5 22. Qf4 Bf5 23. h3 f6 24. Nf3 Qd8 25. Rc1 Rc8 26. Rxc8 Qxc8 27. Nh4 Kg7 28. Nxf5+ gxf5 29. Qg3+ Kf7 30. Kh2 Qc2 31. Qf3 Qxb2 32. Qxh5+ Ke6 33. Qe8+ Kd6 34. Qe3 Qb5 35. h4 Qd7 36. h5 Qh7 37. Qe8 Qh6 38. g3 f4 39. g4 Qg5 40. Kh3 a5 41. a4 b6 42. Qd8+ Kc6 43. Qe7 f3 44. Kg3 Qd2 45. Qxf6+ 1-0

[Mick Norris]

Pity; Brian has white against Yang-Fan Zhou next

round 8 pairings

6 10 GM Bok Benjamin 2598 5½ 5½ GM Hebden Mark L 2492 29
15 58 IM Bates Richard A 2347 5 5 GM Libiszewski Fabien 2547 21
16 22 IM Sadzikowski Daniel 2547 5 5 GM Flear Glenn C 2428 45
18 26 GM Handke Florian 2515 5 5 FM Sowray Peter J 2307 66

Richard has already beaten an IM and drawn with 2 GMs, plus lost to number 1 seed Safarli, so he's having a good tournament

[LawrenceCooper]

I couldn't help but notice that in the remaining game today (Sadzikowski-Flear) that they have played 60+ moves despite it looking more like a position that could be reached around move 25-30. Move 31 was the last pawn move or exchange and they have manoeuvered their way to move 68.

[Mick Norris]

final round pairings France v India for the title

1 2 GM Bacrot Etienne 2689 7 6½ GM Gupta Abhijeet 2634 6
2 9 GM Maze Sebastien 2608 6½ 6½ GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr 2566 17

7 29 GM Hebden Mark L 2492 6 6 GM Hovhannisyan Robert 2630 8
11 35 IM Zhou Yang-Fan 2470 5½ 5½ GM Hawkins Jonathan 2590 13
15 41 GM Williams Simon K 2443 5½ 5½ IM Sadzikowski Daniel 2547 22
16 43 GM Wells Peter K 2431 5½ 5½ GM Schroeder Jan-Christian 2541 23
17 44 IM Daulyte Deimante 2429 5½ 5½ IM Adair James R 2489 30
18 45 GM Flear Glenn C 2428 5½ 5½ IM Karthikeyan P. 2474 32
19 58 IM Bates Richard A 2347 5½ 5½ GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 2471 34

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Any norm chances? How is Brian Tarhon doing?

[John McKenna]

Any norm chances? How is Brian Tarhon doing?

As we know, he wasn't done any favours by GM Hebden, which is exactly as it should be, of course... I would imagine that loss has blown him off course enough to make it difficult to get to his destination normally.

My money, if I was a betting man, would all be on Bacrot to be the ultimate winner of the Open, by the way.

[LawrenceCooper]

Any norm chances? How is Brian Tarhon doing?

He doesn't appear in the round 9 pairings so finished on 4.5. I think he still had a mathematical chance of a norm albeit he was unlikely to get the necessary pairing to keep the norm alive. A good performance but probably a tinge of regret about it not being even better.