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Round 7: 11 December 2015 7TH LONDON CHESS CLASSIC (4-13 DECEMBER 2015) CLASSIC ROUND 7: 11 DECEMBER 2015 John Saunders reports: Well, that round was a bit more like it! The London Classic came to life in round seven at Olympia, with three decisive results, some pulsating play on all the boards and a tense, cliff-hanging endgame which went on long into the evening. After seven of the nine rounds the situation is now as follows: 1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 4½, 2-5 Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Alexander Grischuk 4, 6-8 Mickey Adams, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura 3½, 9 Vishy Anand 2½, 10 Veselin Topalov 1½. The first game to finish (in just a little under three hours) was Aronian-Topalov, with the Bulgarian going down to another disappointing defeat. Topalov has hinted at retirement more than once in the past few months, and perhaps, psychologically, he has already retired in his mind and it is having a negative effect on his game. He started the tournament leading the Grand Chess Tour but he can forget any ambition he had of winning the first prize there. The opening was a Symmetrical English, with a weird (but known) line in which the black knight hops around the board in a loop to e6 via d5, b4, d3 and f4. But Topalov’s queen was soon out of play and an injudicious exchange on g5 left him helpless. Round 7 L. Aronian - V. Topalov 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nb4 6.Bc4 Nd3+ 7.Ke2 Nf4+ 8.Kf1 Ne6 A very weird opening for Black, who has moved his knight six times in eight moves. By way of compensation he has prevented the enemy king from castling and stopped White getting in d2-d4. Back in the 1940s, the first move tried by the earlier practitioners of this slightly bizarre line was 9.Ne5 here, but these days people usually prefer the text move. 9.b4!? cxb4 10.Nd5 g6 11.d4 The line 11.Bb2 Bg7 12.Bxg7 Nxg7 13.Nxb4 0 -0 14.d4 Bg4 was tried and found wanting for White in some games in the early 1980s. 11.a3 Bg7 12.Rb1 Nc5 13.Qc2 Nc6 14.Nxb4 0 -0 15.Nxc6 bxc6 16.d3 was OK for Black in Sveshnikov -Arnason, Sochi 1980. 11...Bg7 12.Be3 Nc6 13.Rc1 Bd7 Aronian thought 13...0 -0 was more precise. “It ’s the same as the game but with a healthier king. ” 14.Qd2 (diagram) 14...Qa5?! Aronian considered this a serious error as the queen is out of play here. Perhaps 14...0 -0 or 14...Rc8 is indicated. 15.h4 Rc8? Both players thought after the game that 15...b3 was the only move, giving back the pawn and exchanging the queens. 16.Bb3! White slams the door on the b4-b3 escape route. 16...Qb5+ 17.Kg1 h6 Aronian thought Black should play 17...h5 and then castle, not worrying about an exchange sac on c6 followed by Nxe7+. 18.Kh2 g5 19.Rhd1 Kf8 After 19...g4 White can play 20.Ne5 Nxe5 21.Rxc8+ Bxc8 22.dxe5 Bxe5+ 23.g3 and White has good piece play for the two pawns sacrificed. 20.Kg1 Aronian felt Topalov had underestimated the white king ’s long march to get ‘castled ’. White is now very comfortably placed. 20...Rd8 21.hxg5 hxg5 22.Bxg5 Nxg5? This facilitates the white attack. “After taking on g5, I thought he was completely lost. ” (Aronian) 22...Be8 tightens the defences. 23.Qxg5 Bh6 24.Qh4 Bg7 25.Qf4 Bh6 26.Ng5 Bxg5 27.Qxg5 1-0 (diagram) A curious position: Topalov resigned and computer engines concur with his assessment of the position, giving it in the region of +3.80 in favour of White. Yet the material is level and it is not immediately obvious how White wins. Aronian summarised it succinctly: “Black can resign because he cannot get the queen into play. The difference is, I have a queen and he has something that used to be a queen! ” Let ’s investigate: 27...Re8 (27...Rg8 28.Qh6+ Ke8? 29.Nc7 mate) 28.Bc4 Qa5 29.Rd3 and now it ’s a lot clearer how close to the end Black ’s position is. Round 7 Report: 11 December 2015, John Saunders Adams-Grischuk was the next game to finish, after around 3½ hours. It started with a Najdorf Sicilian, and ended in a draw in 29 moves. Around move 20 it threatened to get very interesting but then fizzled out to a repetition not many moves later. Anand-Vachier-Lagrave was also a Najdorf Sicilian, of a different line to the Adams-Grischuk, though there were similarities, with the c3 knight coming to d5. Fleetingly, White had a chance to get on top in this game but Vishy missed it in the middlegame complications and he quickly succumbed. Thereafter MVL was relentless, first winning material and then rather cheekily setting up a flashy finish. It shouldn’t happen to a chap on his 46th birthday and, judging from the look on his face as he exited the auditorium, it would rather take more than a cake and a few balloons to console the great world champion in what remained of his evening. Round 7 V. Anand - M. Vachier -Lagrave 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Be3 Be6 9.Nd5 9.Qd3 Nc6 10.a3 d5 11.exd5 Nxd5 12.Nxd5 Qxd5 13.0 -0-0 Qxd3 14.Bxd3 was the game the two players played in Saint Louis this year, which ended in a draw. 9...Nbd7 10.Qd3 0 -0 Here Gelfand chose 10...Bxd5 against Anand in a rapidplay game in Zurich last year. That too was drawn. 11.c4 Carlsen played 11.0 -0 against Grischuk in Saint Louis but went on to lose. 11...b5 12.Nd2 Most games which have reached this position have proceeded 12.cxb5 axb5 13.0 -0 Bxd5 14.exd5 Nb6 and now either 15.Bxb6 or 15.Qxb5, with a level position. 12...Nc5 13.Bxc5 dxc5 14.b3 Bxd5 15.cxd5 15.exd5 e4! is tricky as Black can get threats on the open e -file and long diagonal if White takes the pawn. 15...Ne8 16.0 -0 Nd6 Setting up a classic blockade on the passed d5-pawn. 17.a4 Bg5 18.Nf3 Bf4 19.axb5 The onsite commentators were impressed by Vachier -Lagrave ’s Bg5-f4 plan. One point is that 19.g3 is answered by 19...f5! when 20.gxf4 fxe4 regains the material and causes damage to the white kingside pawn structure. 19...f5!? A very bold, counterattacking plan. 20.Nd2 Qg5 (diagram) 21.Rad1? Can White play 21.Nc4 here? Houdini certainly thinks so: 21...fxe4 22.Qh3 Nxb5 and now 23.Nb6!, threatening the rook, then Nd7 forking rook and c5-pawn, and also making way for the bishop to come to c4. So maybe Black ’s Qg5 had been a bit too bold. 21...axb5 22.exf5 Ra3 23.Ne4 23.Qc2 looks safer: 23...Bxd2 24.Rxd2 Rxb3 25.h4 Qf4 26.Qxb3 Qxd2 27.Bxb5 is about equal. 23...c4 24.Qc2? This turns out to be a blunder. Instead 24.Qb1 Qh6 25.g3 Rxb3 26.Qc2, despite the loss of tempo involved in having to move the queen twice, is better than the deadly pin on the b 1-h7 diagonal. 24...Qxf5 25.Qb2 Maybe Anand had thought he could prop his position up with 25.Bf3 Rxb3 26.Qe2 but now 26...Rxf3! is a shattering blow: 27.gxf3 Qh3 28.Ng3 Nf5! and White is going to be mated. 25...Rxb3 26.Qxb3 cxb3 27.Nxd6 Qg6 28.Nxb5 e4 White is without hope. He could resign now. 29.d6 b2 30.Nd4 Qxd6 31.Bc4+ Kh8 32.Ne6 Bxh2+ 33.Kh1 Rxf2! Surprising, in a way, that Black should not liquidate to a simpler win, rather than playing this flashy finish and risking a flaw in his analysis, but such is the self -confidence of youth. 34.Ng5 If I were Vishy I would have played 34.Rxd6 hoping for 34...Rxf1+?? 35.Kxh2! h6 36.Ba2! but then I don ’t get to play people as strong as MVL (who would have found 34...Bd6, winning). 34...Bg3! 0-1 (diagram) The final position is worth a diagram. Black ’s calm final move sets up a back rank mate scenario which is just a bit more potent than White ’s. Julian Hodgson in the VIP Room became animated when he saw that Caruana-Giri started with his beloved Tromp. The opening would have alarmed players unfamiliar with Tromp strategy as it involved Black giving up a pawn, which became a monster passed pawn on c6. Except that, in reality, it wasn’t too monstrous as it lacked support from its colleagues, and a far- sighted GM would realise that its days were numbered. Again, many Black players might have worried about the white rooks dominating the open files Round 7 Report: 11 December 2015, John Saunders in the middlegame but Giri seemed to have everything under control. Soon all the major pieces disappeared from the board, as did all the queenside pawns, and a drawn position reached. By contrast with Caruana-Giri’s Tromp, the Exchange Slav of Carlsen-Nakamura elicited a few groans from the watching spectators.
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