London Chess Classic 2011: Round 5

News release Thursday 8th December 2011

LONDON CHESS CLASSIC 2011: ROUND 5

John Saunders reports:

Nakamura Shines as England Goes Down in Flames

With their star striker on the bench, England went down 0-3 in this crucial round. No, this isn’t football and I’m not predicting the first round of next year’s European Team Championship (with Wayne Rooney hors de combat). This was the main feature of the fifth round of the London Chess Classic. England’s leading contender Luke McShane was in the commentary room watching as his English colleagues were being shot down in flames.

The principal beneficiary of the bloodshed was Hikaru Nakamura who beat David Howell to take over the sole lead. If Hikaru weren’t such a pleasant young fellow, I’d cast him as the Giant in the traditional Christmas pantomime Jack And The Beanstalk, with his traditional cry of “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman”. And, don’t forget, he has three more Englishmen to come. Yesterday’s game started with a distinctly pantomime flavour. As usual, there were large numbers of schoolchildren in the auditorium to watch the start of play, and when tournament director Malcolm Pein opened with his customary “Good Afternoon, everyone”, quite unprompted the children all chorused “good afternoon” in reply. It was a delightful moment and Malcolm couldn’t resist giving it a reprise, with the children again responding with gusto.

The round featured the meeting of the two young men who sit atop the unofficial live chess rating list. Levon Aronian had White against Magnus Carlsen. It was a Chebanenko Slav, with Levon quickly diverging from the line he had used against Luke McShane. He obtained a big edge, overlooking a chance to subject his opponent to a strong bind, but nerves seemed to play a part on both sides and Magnus was ultimately able to draw the game. Something of a let-off for Carlsen, while Aronian’s finishing is not as sharp as we have come to expect.

Hikaru Nakamura’s game plan seemed to be to play within himself and aim for steady pressure, allowing David Howell’s habitual time pressure to take its toll. This is more or less what happened.

Round 5 H.Nakamura - D.Howell English Opening 1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 g3 Bb4 4 Nf3 Bxc3 5 bxc3 Nc6 6 Bg2 0–0 7 0–0 Re8 8 d3 e4 9 Nd4 exd3 10 exd3 Nxd4 11 cxd4 d5 12 Be3 h6 Exiting theory. 12...Be6 was played by English IM Mike Basman against Mikhail Botvinnik at Hastings in 1966. 12...Bf5 has been played more recently by Wesley So. 13 h3 b6 With hindsight this may not be the best plan. 14 Rc1 Qd7 15 Bf4 Bb7 16 Be5 Nh7 17 c5 One consequence of this move is that the black bishop is rendered unemployed on the long diagonal. At the moment, so is the white light-squared bishop but the American soon finds a solution. 17...Rac8 18 h4 Nf8 19 Kh2 bxc5 After 19...Ne6, 20 Qg4 gives White king side pressure. 20 Bh3 Ne6 21 Rxc5 f6 22 Bf4 Qd8 23 Ra5 c5 I presume the objection to something like 23...Ra8 24 Be3 c6 25 Qa4 is that it leaves Black's position rather static, with White retaining the initiative. David prefers something bolder. 24 Rxa7 Qb6 25 Ra4 Nxd4!? 26 Qh5!? 26 Bxc8 Bxc8 is a useful exchange sacrifice, with Black poised to exploit the weakened light squares on the kingside. Both players are less concerned about material than having attacking chances. 26...Qc6? 26...f5! looks a lot better, blocking the scope of the light-squared bishop and preventing an occupation of the weak g6 square. 27 Rxd4!? cxd4 28 Bxf5 looks plausible but after 28...Ra8 it is not so clear how White can prosecute the attack. 27 Rb1 Ra8 28 Rxa8 Rxa8

29 Bg2 The computer comes up with a remarkable move understandably missed by both players: 29 Re1!!, the point being that Black cannot usefully stop the rook coming to e7 where it facilitates a mating attack. There are lots of variations but Black is dead lost at the end of all of them, e.g. 29...Kf8 30 Bxh6! Qd6 31 Bf4 Qd8 and now the mind-numbingly brilliant 32 Re6!! finishes the game. But no human could be blamed for missing this sort of continuation. 29...Ne6? White is on top anyway but this allows an elegant winning tactic: 29...Rd8 30 Rxb7 Qxb7 31 Bxd5 Qc8 32 Bxh6! Ra6 32...gxh6 33 Qg6+ Kh8 34 Qxh6+ soon wins. 33 Be3 Rd6 33...Ra3 34 Qf5 Kf7 35 Bxc5 Ra5 36 d4 also wins. 34 Bxc5! Rxd5 34...Qxc5 35 Bxe6+ wins the queen. 35 Qxd5 Kf7 36 Be3 Qa6 37 Qc4 Qa8 38 d4 1–0

Nigel Short played a slightly offbeat line against Vishy Anand’s Sicilian. GMs in the VIP room shook their heads at this choice of opening, opining that you have to play ‘real openings’ to retain a white initiative against world-class players. Nevertheless, Nigel seemed to be doing reasonably well until he slipped into time trouble after spending rather too long on his 25th move and then blundering on move 34: “a move of criminal stupidity,” as he himself characterised it in the commentary room. This win was the world champion’s first in a long time - nine rounds in Moscow and five here. But it is not unprecedented for a great champion, for example Kasparov’s unsuccessful defence of his title in 2000 in which he failed to win a game.

Mickey Adams succumbed to his third straight defeat against Vlad Kramnik. GM Stuart Conquest on Twitter (@stuthefox) commented sympathetically: “Adams has now lost three in a row: a terrible strain for any player. Let’s hope he can show his best chess vs Aronian tomorrow.” Of course, playing Kramnik as Black is bad news anyway; he is as relentless as inquisitor as Carlsen. It was Vlad’s famous recipe: Kramnik à la Catalan. Stir gently for about 20-30 moves and then apply some minority attack seasoning to taste. However, the electronic master chef Rybka points out that he overcooked it slightly on move 28, where Black could have played 28...Nc7, threatening to snap off the rook. Engine analysis suggests the outcome would be fairly equal. What Mickey played was much worse: he shed a pawn within a few moves. Vlad applied steady heat and he was soon done to a turn.

Today, Friday 9 December, Hikaru Nakamura celebrates his 24th birthday. Many happy returns! His present is Black against a well-rested Luke McShane. Hikaru has celebrated his previous birthdays in London with Black against Mickey Adams in 2009 (a draw) and Black against Vlad Kramnik in 2010 (a win) so he should be pretty confident.

However, home fans will be looking to Luke to make amends for the English ‘Black Thursday’ and ruin Hikaru’s birthday. The US/UK ‘special relationship’ has been put on hold for the day. Home fans have had quite a lot to cheer them in the Open, incidentally. Top English woman player IM Jovanka Houska shares the lead on 5½/6 with GMs Peter Wells and Abhijeet Gupta from India. Jovanka has beaten GM Matthieu Cornette of France and highly-rated Indian IM Sahaj Grover, as well as drawing with in- form English GM Gawain Jones (and she was pressing hard for an endgame win in that game too). Jovanka’s performance rating is currently an eye-watering 2762 and she has a very realistic chance of a GM norm.

After all the heavyweight chess, here’s some light entertainment from the FIDE Open.

FIDE Open Round 1 A.Plug - T.Farrand 18 Bh6!? 18 Rf2 is pretty good for White here, but Plug decides to go for it, big time. 18...Bxf1 19 Bxg7 Kxg7 20 Rxe6 Bxg2 21 Qh6+ Kh8 22 f6 Rg8 22...Rf7 is better, says my analysis engine, but let's not worry too much about that. 23 fxe7 Nxe7 24 Kxg2 Rg7 25 Ne3 Qf8 26 Rxe7!? Wow, that's ambitious. This sort of move is sometimes called a ‘fifty percenter’ because the opponent has the choice of one very good move - and one very bad one. 26...Qxe7 “Darn it,” thinks White, “he saw that after 26...Rxe7 27 Ng6+ wins the queen.” 27 Nef5 Qe2+ 28 Kg1 Qe1+ 29 Kg2 Qe2+ 30 Kg1 Qe1+ 31 Kg2 White has now seen the error of his ways and realises he has nothing. 31...Qe4+ 32 Kg1

Black could take the perpetual but decides that two rooks are worth more than two knights... 32...Rf7?? ... he's right but unfortunately not in this precise position: 32...Qb1+ 33 Kg2 Qxb2+ 34 Kh3 Qxc3 should win for Black. 33 Ng6+! Kg8 34 Qg7+!! Rxg7 35 Nh6 mate

Rtg 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pts 1 Nakamura 2758 * 0 1 3 3 3 10/5 2 Carlsen 2826 3 * 1 1 1 3 9/5 3 McShane 2671 1 * 1 3 3 8/4 4 Kramnik 2800 1 1 * 3 3 8/4 5 Anand 2811 0 * 3 1 1 5/4 6 Aronian 2802 0 1 1 * 3 5/4 7 Short 2698 0 0 0 * 3 3/4 8 Adams 2734 0 0 1 0 * 1 2/5 9 Howell 2633 0 0 0 1 1 * 2/5

Score / No Name Win Draw Loss Tie break Rating TPR games 1 Nakamura Hikaru 3 1 1 10.0 / 5 2758 2923 2 Carlsen Magnus 2 3 0 9.0 / 5 2826 2882 3 McShane Luke J 2 2 0 8.0 / 4 2 black wins 2671 2942 4 Kramnik Vladimir 2 2 0 8.0 / 4 1 black win 2800 2947 5 Anand Viswanathan 1 2 1 5.0 / 4 black win 2811 2706 6 Aronian Levon 1 2 1 5.0 / 4 white win 2802 2738 7 Short Nigel D 1 0 3 3.0 / 4 2698 2594 8 Howell David W L 0 2 3 2.0 / 5 2633 2520 Adams Michael 0 2 3 2.0 / 5 2734 2483

The scores above are ‘absolute’, i.e. they make no allowance for the three players who have played fewer games. My unofficial ‘relative’ scores (using a golf-style formula but in reverse: +2 for a win, -1 for a loss, draws don't count): 1 Nakamura +5, 2 McShane +4, 3 Kramnik +4, 4 Carlsen +4, 5 Anand +1, 6 Aronian +1, 7 Short -1, 8-9 Adams, Howell -3.

Round 6 games start on Friday 9 December at the usual 1400 UK time. Magnus Carlsen has the bye and will be joining the commentary team for the day.

For more information and to buy tickets to the London Chess Classic, please go to www.londonchessclassic.com -

For further information please call: John Saunders Press Chief, London Chess Classic Mobile: 07777 664111 E : [email protected]