With white in the final round, I believe Kramnik only needs a draw to win the 2o11 London Chess Classic, even if Carlsen wins his final round. The reason for that it Kramnik won 2 games with Black. Even if Carlsen beats Short, that would be his only win with Black. McShane and Nakamura cannot catch Kramnik in this scenario.
Final round pairings
Luke McShane – Vishy Anand
Hikaru Nakamura – Michael Adams
Nigel Short – Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik – Levon Aronian
Unofficial standings after 8 (based on my calculation)
1 Kramnik 2800 15.0
2 Carlsen 2826 13.0
3 McShane 2671 12.0
4 Nakamura 2758 12.0
5 Anand 2811 8.0
6 Aronian 2802 8.0
7 Short 2698 5.0
8 Howell 2633 4.0
9 Adams 2734 3.0
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I sure hope, Kramnik wins, he deserves it, altough Naka is better, of course
even Naka thinks so
Vlad is winning on his own. Naka is not winning even after borrowing Gary’s sharp chess brain.. If Gary’s opening DB is not avbl.. it would have been a repeat of Tal Memorial placings for him.. last
This has been a very good tournament, full of interesting games. I hope Kramnik wins, he’s been on good form in London. Carlsen has also played really well and has improved his game this year. Anand has looked lackluster lately, maybe he’s saving something for next year. For sure this is one of the very best events of the year.
I too hope Kramnik wins this. Carlsen is a great scrapper but he has won many tournaments by a whisker and it is time someone else won!