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The 2012 London Chess Classic took place in the Olympia Conference Centre from Saturday, December 1st until Monday, December 10th. A win was counted as three points, a draw as one, and a loss zero.
The tournament doesn’t end with a bang, but to be fair the entire event was very exciting and hard fought. This was my favorite tournament to follow this year.
| Round 9:
Monday, Dec. 10th, 2012, 12:00h |
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| Michael Adams |
½-½ |
Vladimir Kramnik | ||||
| Judit Polgar |
½-½ |
Levon Aronian | ||||
| Hikaru Nakamura |
1-0 |
Luke McShane | ||||
| Magnus Carlsen |
½-½ |
Vishy Anand | ||||
Gawain Jones (bye) – assisting
commentary |
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Judit Polgar-Levon Aronian ½-½
The Marshall has always been a hot topic in the Spanish Opening. Aronian
has used it time and time again to defend successfully with the black pieces,
and today was no exception. The pawn sacrifice led to too much activity for
Black, who eventually equalized, and the game ended in a draw.
Michael Adams-Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
In another Spanish Opening, Michael Adams employed a variation that
Kasimdzhanov has been fancying lately against the Berlin setup. I’m very
skeptical about the entire variation, and Kramnik showed one of probably many
ways to equalize easily. Neither side had a decent winning chance in the entire
game.
Hikaru Nakamura-Luke McShane 1-0
A very interesting a6 Slav turned into a fighting game when Luke sacrificed
the exchange for a pawn and a powerful knight on e5. However, soon afterwards
he committed an atrocious blunder, and Hikaru simply scooped up an extra piece,
forcing instant resignation. The American finishes the tournament on a high
note and regains some valuable rating points which he had lost in the previous
tournament.
Magnus Carlsen-Vishy Anand ½-½
Carlsen tried and tried and tried, despite only needing a draw. The third Ruy
Lopez of the day gave the Norwegian little, and although Anand had some difficulties
here and there, he was never in any serious danger. Eventually
the game was drawn as Anand showed good defensive skill.
The winner with a 2994 performance: Magnus Carlsen, who now leads on the
live ratings
# |
Name | Rating |
+/– |
Games |
Chart |
Age |
1 |
Carlsen | 2861.4 |
+13.4 |
6 |
|
22 (30.11.1990) |
2 |
Kramnik | 2809.7 |
+14.7 |
6 |
|
37 (25.06.1975) |
3 |
Aronian | 2802.2 |
-12.8 |
5 |
|
30 (06.10.1982) |
4 |
Radjabov | 2793.0 |
0.0 |
0 |
|
25 (12.03.1987) |
5 |
Caruana | 2780.6 |
-1.4 |
11 |
|
20 (30.07.1992) |
6 |
Karjakin | 2780.3 |
+5.3 |
11 |
|
22 (12.01.1990) |
7 |
Anand | 2772.1 |
-2.9 |
5 |
|
42 (11.12.1969) |
8 |
Topalov | 2771.0 |
0.0 |
0 |
|
37 (15.03.1975) |
9 |
Mamedyarov | 2766.4 |
+2.4 |
11 |
|
27 (12.04.1985) |
10 |
Ivanchuk | 2766.0 |
0.0 |
0 |
|
43 (18.03.1969
|
Pictures by Ray Morris-Hill, Frederic Friedel and Pascal Simon
Live commentary during the games was provided by experts – above Malcolm
Pein, Danny
King and Stephen Gordon – for the audience in London, the official broadcast
and on Playchess
Immediately after the games the players would appear in the commentary room
to analyse (above Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik, with Stephen Gordon and David
Howell). This too was broadcast on the official site and on Playchess.
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The games – except for rounds four and nine – start at 2 p.m. or 14:00h British time = 15:00h CET, 17:00h Moscow, 7:30 p.m. Chennai, 22:00h Beijing, 01:00 a.m. Melbourne, 03:00 a.m. Auckland, 6 a.m. San José, 9 a.m. New York. You can check your location here. Naturally the games will be covered live on the official web site (below) and on Playchess. The games of round four begin two hours later, those of the final round two hours earlier.
Watch the live stream from the London Chess classic here.
Links
The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client and get immediate access. Or you can get our latest Fritz 13 program, which includes six months free premium membership to Playchess. |
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