London Chess Classic 2011 dates confirmed
For general release on 26th March 2011
The dates for the London Chess Classic 2011 have been confirmed and the tournament will be held from December 3-12 at the Olympia Conference centre in Kensington. The tournament will change format slightly with the addition of one more player, making the UK’s most prestigious tournament even stronger.
Each day, one player will have a day off and will assist the LCC commentary team both at Olympia and in the internet broadcast, making the Classic even more exciting to watch.
There will also be five days of junior coaching, a Grandmaster Open, and weekend tournaments for players of all levels. An innovation this year will be a chess festival with lectures, teaching and film screenings. The prize fund has been increased again and will be in excess of €150,000. The lineup will be announced in May.
Malcolm Pein (IM)
Tournament Director
Very Great, I much enjoyed the last one!
I will share one more game, here, now. Now I am still quitting smoking, it lingers, I do not want to tease myself, just get it over and done with by summer.
So, this is an earlier game. A french, me black. I am not sure why one would play 4. … Nc6, that would allow Be3, but there must be a point white does not play that.
The concervative Be2, not the Bd3 which I intuitively think winning for black though I gather by theory white has play there. I don’t understand why white so often exchanges on c5 after the knight has left e7. Ok, he wasted a tempo.(and I am reviewing this as I type, the more exciting! Still I don’t explain what I do, I remark the opponents faults)
Ah, yes, now I remember this game in full. I was striving to gain an advantage, but underestimated his e pawn. I assumed I would gain it, but found I could not. I understood I had to defend, which was the reason I saved this game. I’ll skip other commentary from this point save to say, I suddenly, in this about 12min + 5s game found I had to defend, but then I started defensive maneuvres. I don’t know how correct they were, but I do remember at about move 25 I suddenly had under 1 minute against his 8…. And I realised that under no condition must my knight be exchanged.
But then he started using time. How to win I suppose. Oh, my 24… a5 was simple bluff at that time. But he allowed me to win the e pawn, a dream come true for me. I could even think of a win. I decided to try to liquidate the queenside. At this time I was at 20 seconds, but he was closing on 1 minute. 32. Bb2 inexplicable if you ask me, passive.
I gather at this point then he was trying to push me out of time, though I was holding my own at 5 seconds a move, he had a minute.
And suddenly the position turned around. I am very proud of this game, be what it may, because I have not done so many defensive maneuvres in my life. I was at this point in play a move in 5 seconds mode.
So I gather he still thought he had the advantage, and more tried to push me off time. (around move 40.)
In the very end I had no time to consider whether he blundered an exchange or what was what, at under a second I forked the rooks and saw the continuation, and he resigned.
Be whatever what, I took a defence at enormous time pressure, and held and apparently frustrated the opponent. Perhaps the queen move the a7 really was good. I spent an eternity, from 8 minutes to under a minute to these things once i realised I could lose… But takes a more savvy mind than mine to know what actually happened in this game.
So, here for enjoyment:
1.e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Qb6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.a3 Bd7 7.Be2 Nge7 8.0-0 Nf5 9.dxc5 Bxc5 10.Bd3 0-0 11.b4 Be7 12.Nbd2 Qc7 13.Re1 Rad8 14.Nb3 b6 15.Bb2 f6 16.Bxf5 exf5 17.e6 Be8 18.Qd3 Bg6 19.Nh4 Ne5 20.Qb1 Nc4 21.Nd4 Nd2 22.Qc2 Ne4 23.Ndxf5 Bxf5 24.Nxf5 a5 25.Nxe7+ Qxe7 26.f3 Ng5 27.Rad1 Nxe6 28.Qe2 Rd6 29.Qb5 axb4 30.cxb4 Rfd8 31.Bd4 Qa7 32.Bb2 d4 33.Qc4 Kf7 34.Qb3 d3 35.a4 b5+ 36.Kh1 Qxa4 37.Qxa4 bxa4 38.Ba3 d2 39.Re4 Nc7 40.b5 R6d7 41.b6 Nb5 42.Rxa4 Nc3 43.Ra7 Nxd1 44.Bb4 Nc3 45.Ra1 white resign