12/14/2010 – Nigel Short tried a sacrificial sideline of the Marshall Attack. Hikaru Nakamura was able to find a stable continuation and ultimately won. Nigel was his usual ebullient self in the commentary room and burst into song. David Howell found the cruel truth of the biblical quotation “he that has not, from him shall be taken even that which he has”. Commentary and postgame analysis of the player.
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London Chess Classic 2010
The tournament is an eight-player round-robin for seven rounds played at 40/2h
+ 20/1h + g/15'+30" using the Sofia Rules. Prizes: 1st 50,000 Euros, 2nd
25,000 Euros, 3rd 15,000 Euros, 4th 10,000 Euros, 5th 10,000 Euros, 6th 8,000
Euros plus seven daily Best Game prizes of 1,000 Euros voted on by the public.
Tie Breaks: In order of priority. 1. Number of games with Black. 2. Number of
games won with Black. 3. Number of games won. 4. Ranking based on the games
between the tied players only.
Analysis of round five
By John Saunders
Round five’s chess was an unofficial ‘England versus the World’
match as well as a critical juncture in the tournament as the joint leaders
Vishy Anand and Luke McShane clashed. By the end of the round the number of
leaders had swelled to three, as Magnus Carlsen took advantage of the ‘football
scoring system’ to join Vishy and Luke at the head of the field.
Nigel Short had another off-day. In a spirit of recklessness born of desperation,
he tried a sacrificial sideline of the Marshall Attack (9...e4) for which Hikaru
was barely prepared but was able to find a stable continuation based on 11 g3
which suggests that this line may not be feasible at super-GM level. Short’s
position after 20 Qf5 looked hopeless and so it proved. Nigel was his usual
ebullient self in the commentary room and even treated us to a burst of his
singing voice at the end.
Nigel Short in great spirits before the start of the game
Nakamura,Hikaru (2741) - Short,Nigel (2680) [C89]
London Chess Classic 2nd London (5), 12.12.2010 [Saunders,J]
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3
d5. The Marshall. Nigel has played this a handful of times over the years
but Hikaru was probably not expecting it. 9.exd5 e4!?
The Steiner variation. It may be that, after GMs have analysed this game thoroughly,
that the exclamation and question marks shown here swap places. "/portals/all/_for_legal_reasons.jpg" (Short). "I
had an idea Nigel would play something a little bit crazy" (Nakamura).
Nigel claimed that Malcolm Pein plays this line and jokingly suggested that
he played it in his honour but no game by our esteemed tournament director could
be found on the Mega database. 10.dxc6 exf3 11.g3. This logical continuation,
simply aiming at emerging from the opening with an extra pawn, was more or less
improvised by Hikaru at the board. It has been played before but barely mentioned
in books on this line. "The book recommendation is 11.d4 - maybe there
will be a new book recommendation after this game" (Short); 11.Qxf3 is
another way to play and one chosen by Bobby Fischer a couple of times. 11...Re8
12.d4. Black's innocuous-looking last move actually carried a payload of
venom. If 12.Qxf3? Bc5! and White is suddenly vulnerable to tricks against his
rook and back rank, e.g. 13.Rf1 Bg4! 14.Qg2 Qc8 , etc. 12...Bg4 13.Bg5 h6.
13...Qd6 14.Qd3 h6 15.Bxf6 Bxf6 16.Nd2 Qxc6 17.Qg6!? Be6 18.Qh5 rounds
up the f3 pawn and ensures White keeps his one-pawn advantage. 14.Bxf6 Bxf6.
White's decision to give up his dark-squared bishop wasn't too problematic
as the residual black dark-squared bishop doesn't have much of a future against
White's preponderance of pawns on black squares. 15.Nd2 Qd6 16.h3! Bh5
16...Rxe1+ 17.Qxe1 Bxh3 18.Qe4 and White will soon be a pawn up once again,
with an enhanced positional advantage. 17.Qc2! With the threat of Qf5,
embarrassing the h5 bishop. 17...Bg5 18.Ne4 Qxc6. If 18...Qg6 White
can step up the pressure with 19.Qd3 and then 11 Bc2, while Black has only succeeded
in bottling up his own pieces on the kingside. 19.Nxg5 hxg5 20.Qf5
Nigel told us that, paradoxically, he still had some belief in his position
while he was a pawn down, but now the material was level, he completely despaired
of it. 20...Rxe1+. 20...Qg6 21.Qxg6 Bxg6 22.Bd5 wins the f3 pawn, leading
to a comfortable technical win. 21.Rxe1 Re8 22.Re5. Not 22.Rxe8+? Qxe8
when the back rank threat would necessitate 23.Qe5 Qxe5 24.dxe5 and White has
endangered his winning chances. 22...Rxe5 23.dxe5 Bg6. Once again 23...Qg6
allows 24.Qxg6 Bxg6 25.Bd5 and the f3 pawn drops off. 24.Qxg5 Qe4 25.Qd8+
Kh7 26.Qh4+ Qxh4 27.gxh4 f6. Annoyingly for Black, the doubled h-pawns
almost help White's cause. If he tries to defend his f-pawn with 27...Bh5 the
white king can now march out to attack it via h2 and g3 and then play Bd1 to
win it. 28.exf6 gxf6 29.Bd5 a5 30.b4 axb4 31.cxb4 Bd3 32.Kh2 Bc4 33.Be4+.
33.Bxc4?? we can discount; 33.Bxf3? is also sub-optimal as after 33...Bxa2
Black might have a few tricks based on driving the b-pawn through (on a very
good day, anyway). 33...Kh6 34.a3
At this point in the commentary room, Nigel concluded the session with a short
snatch of song with the first line "/portals/all/_for_legal_reasons.jpg"
to the tune of the 1960s hit "I'll
Never Fall in Love Again" by Bobbie Gentry (you can hear it at the
end of the second video below, at 7 min 50 sec). It was a show-stopping rendition,
with the crowd on their feet begging for more and throwing garlands of flowers.
A whole new career suddenly opens up for Nigel – this year Olympia, next
year the Albert Hall. You can hear it for yourself on video 5.3 at the website.
Nigel graciously attributed the libretto to former British champion and joker
extraordinaire GM Jonathan Mestel. But, returning reluctantly to the chess,
Black is right to quit at this point: 34...Be6 35.Bxf3 Kg6 36.Kg3 f5 37.Kf4
Bd7 38.h5+ Kf6 39.Be2 Bc6 40.Bd3 Bd7 41.h6 is hopeless. 1-0. [Click
to replay]
Postgame analysis as broadcast on YouTube
Analysis of Nakamura-Short part one
Analysis of Nakamura-Short part two
Mickey Adams confronted Vlad Kramnik’s celebrated Berlin Wall with 4
d3, which the great Russian said he thought of as the “second main line”
against his trademark barricade. After some exchanges, the players reached a
position with a small edge for White but one which proved readily defensible
by Black. After some further exchanges a draw was agreed.
Joining the leaders: Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen
David Howell, like his senior English colleague, found the cruel truth of the
biblical quotation “he that has not, from him shall be taken even that
which he has”. There is always a tendency to gang up on players who are
not doing too well in a tournament. Of course, the fact that he was paired with
Magnus Carlsen didn’t help. Even so, David was alive and only suffering
from a slight disadvantage at the time control. However, he went astray almost
immediately with 42 g5 and then the disastrous 43 Qg3 which cost him a piece.
Howell,David (2611) - Carlsen,Magnus (2802) [B81]
London Chess Classic 2nd London (5), 12.12.2010 [Saunders,J]
Black has the safer king and other small advantages but it doesn't add up
to much. 42.g5? David prefers to seek counterplay but he should have
been content to sit and suffer as this has a tactical flaw. 42...Qa4! Black's
immediate threat is now Qe4 and Qh1 mate. White could defend with Ng3 but that
would cost him his f-pawn and his position would collapse. 43.Qg3? This
loses a piece. White's best might have been 43.Qe3 when 43...Qd1 44.Qe2 Qxe2
45.Bxe2 hxg5 46.fxg5 Nxe5 would probably win for Black. 43...Qd1!
44.Nf6+. Desperation. White could do nothing to defend his knight
on h5. If 44.Qh4 Bc4 45.Ng3 Black plays 45...Nd4! and all the tactics work for
Black. For example, 46.Bxd4 Qxd4+ 47.Kh1 Bd5+ 48.Bg2 Bc5 49.Ne2 Qd1+ and wins.
44...gxf6 45.gxf6+ Kh8 46.Qd3 Qxd3 47.Bxd3 Nb4 48.Bb1 Ba2 49.Be4 Nd5 50.f5
Nf4 51.Kh2 exf5 52.Bxf5 Be6 53.Bg4 Bxg4 54.hxg4 Ne6 55.Kg3 Bc5 0-1.
[Click to replay]
The games will be broadcast live on the official
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Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
€21.90
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