London Chess Classic round 4 report

News release
Saturday 12th December 2009

LONDON CHESS CLASSIC: ROUND 4

All four games played in Round 4 of the London Chess Classic on 12 December 2009 ended in draws. They were all fighting draws which were only concluded after full-blooded battles.

In many ways the star of today’s round were the chess fans themselves. They came in their droves. Tournament director Malcolm Pein warned us to brace ourselves for a bumper crowd on the Saturday and he wasn’t wrong. The first three days of the congress were very well attended but the chess audience today was awesome. The auditorium was packed with fans, as was the commentary room, and it was just as well that the organisers had thoughtfully planned further commentary in the foyer of the Olympia Conference Centre as it was definitely needed. Even more people were busy playing the game. Blitz and rapid plays events were being played in the foyer and a weekend tournament got underway besides the festival events that started on Tuesday. As an old-timer who has attended chess tournaments in England’s capital for more than forty years, I’ve not seen anything quite like this since the Fischer boom of the mid-1970s. In addition, we were visited by some more continental chess organisers and journalists and they were heard to comment in very favourable terms about the variety of chess entertainments available at Olympia.

To the chess… Michael Adams has a pretty good record against Vladimir Kramnik. They have met nearly 40 times over the board (including blitz and less serious encounters) and Adams is +1 overall. One of their most important meetings was in the 1999 FIDE World Knock-Out Championship in Las Vegas when Adams eliminated Kramnik in the quarter-final via a rapidplay play-off. The following year Adams beat Kramnik at the Russian’s favourite tournament, Dortmund, thereby ending Kramnik’s 82-game unbeaten run which had lasted well over a year. Adams beat him again in 2004 and 2005 and in fact has not lost a significant game to him for more than nine years. So Vladimir Kramnik would have been keen to take his revenge. But Adams was in very good form today. Playing Black, he gave up the two bishops and then a pawn to neutralise the ex-world champion’s pressure and steered the game towards a sterile opposite-coloured bishops endgame. Admittedly, a draw was probably not what the big crowd wanted to see but it was subtly played and a valuable lesson in how to keep a formidable player at bay.

Appearances can be deceptive in chess. All the pieces other than pawns disappeared from the board in McShane-Howell in double quick time and I suppose some spectators might have thought this was a cunning ruse to get the game over with and agree a draw. But I think this is most unlikely. Most experienced chess players know that a king and pawn endgame, even with symmetrical pawn structures, can be a very dangerous animal. One slip, or a faint positional weakness, and it can be curtains. You don’t swap off your last minor or major piece without doing a lot of checking and double-checking in case there is some little nuance which you may have overlooked. It was something of a gamble on David Howell’s part as he had the disadvantage of a pair of doubled pawns – just the sort of problem that can be fatal in a king and pawn endgame – but it paid off. McShane probed and prodded in expert fashion but Howell’s defence stood firm.

Once again a lot of attention focused on Magnus Carlsen’s game. The last time he met Hikaru Nakamura was in a four-game rapid play match in Oslo only two weeks ago, when the American won 3-1 so that must have been in the back of his mind. Carlsen played White and managed to isolate Hikaru Nakamura’s e6 pawn but it transpired his position was not as good as it appeared. Carlsen even found himself obliged to surrender a pawn. The game came down a queen ending and Carlsen secured a perpetual check.

Magnus Carlsen – Hikaru Nakamura
Slav D17

1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6

The Slav defence to the Queen’s Gambit, which is currently all the rage at super-GM level. One small positional detail is that Black’s light-squared bishop on c8 often has a bit more scope than is the case in the Queen’s Gambit Declined after 2…e6.

3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 dxc4 5 a4

At this highly sophisticated level, Black doesn’t really expect to retain his extra pawn, but White has to take precautions with 5 a4 otherwise Black might well do so.

5…Bf5 6 Nh4

White doesn’t want the bishop to have time to settle on the b1–h7 diagonal with h7-h6 (allowing Bf5-h7), so he drives it back at the first opportunity.

6…Bc8

Is Hikaru mimicking Magnus? You may remember Carlsen retreating his bishops to their original squares against Kramnik with powerful effect. But the answer to the question posed is probably “no” – this is a standard retreat here. Black figures that, since White has wasted a move putting his knight on the edge of the board, he may as well put the bishop back on c8 and relocate it somewhere more useful after he has had the chance to kick the knight away from h4.

7 e3 e5 8 Bxc4

8 dxe5 is a bad idea: 8…Qxd1+ 9 Nxd1 (9 Kxd1 Ng4 10 Ke1 Nxe5 leaves Black a genuine pawn ahead) 9…Bb4+ 10 Bd2 Bxd2+ 11 Kxd2 Ne4+ and Black can follow up with Be6 and claim a slight advantage.

8…exd4 9 exd4 Be7 10 0–0 0–0 11 Re1 Nd5 12 Nf3 Be6!?

Quite a standard looking developing move, but you can bet your bottom dollar (or Norwegian krone) that both these young fellows would have been delving deep into the variations that follow White’s next move.

13 Qb3

Now White is piling pressure along the a2-g8 diagonal as well as threatening to take the b7 pawn.

13…Na6

Black has little option other than to play this. If 13…b6 14 a5! is strong. If Black continues unwarily, e.g. 14…b5? 15 Bxd5 Bxd5? 16 Nxd5, Black cannot capture on d5 with the queen because then the e7 bishop would be lost.

14 Bd2

Most experienced players would think hard before daring to play 14 Qxb7 as b-pawns are often laced with poison, but leading diagnostician Dr Fritz seems to think that eating this one would at worst only bring about a slight case of indigestion and, at best, might even be quite nutritious: 14…Nab4 – it’s never nice seeing the door slam shut behind your queen, but let’s look further – 15 Bxd5 cxd5 16 Bg5!? and White’s queen is not in any danger. Black may have some compensation for the pawn in the shape of the two bishops. I imagine Carlsen rejected this line because he wanted something more tangible from the opening.

14…Nab4

14…Nac7 15 a5 Rb8, draw agreed, was Arkell-Gormally, 4NCL 1999, but such an eventuality was not an option for the players of the current game.

15 Ne4 Bf5 16 Ne5 a5 17 Nc5!?

17 Rac1 is perhaps the more solid option but the text is very challenging and might have led to a very good position for White.

17…Bxc5

I suppose a second retreat to the original square with 17…Bc8 was not entirely out of the question here, but then White would continue to build up pressure with 18 Re2, etc. 17…Nc2 gets horribly complex but after 18 Nxb7 Qc7 (there may be slightly better alternatives) 19 Bxa5! Rxa5 20 Nxa5 Nxe1 21 Naxc6 White emerges with a winning advantage.

18 dxc5 Qc7 19 Bxb4?!

This looks as if it could be a misjudgement of the position a little further along in the game. 19 Bxd5 Nxd5 20 Nc4 gives White a pleasant advantage.

19…Nxb4 20 Qf3 Be6! 21 Bxe6 fxe6 22 Qb3 Qe7

White has engineered an isolated pawn for Black on e6 but now discovers that he cannot realistically exploit it.

23 Nf3 Nd5

The rock-solid knight on d5 seems to negate any positional advantage that White might have thought he possessed.

24 Rac1 Rf4

Quite a nice square for the rook, thinking about Rb4, etc.

25 Ne5 Raf8 26 Nd3 Rd4 27 Rc4 Rxc4 28 Qxc4 Qf6 29 g3 Rd8 30 Kg2 Qf5 31 Nc1 Rf8 32 Qe2

Here White has to be careful. If 32 Re2?? to protect the f2 pawn, then 32…Ne3+!! would have won the game for Black, since 33 fxe3 (33 Rxe3 Qxf2+ loses rook and pawn for a knight) 33…Qf1 is mate and

32…Nc7 33 Nd3 Rd8 34 Ne5 Rd5 Black had gradually turned the position round and now he is putting intolerable pressure on White’s very weak c-pawn. 35 Kg1 White decides to be bold and let the c-pawn go for some activity.

35…Rxc5 36 Nc4 Qf8 37 Rd1 Rd5 38 Rxd5 exd5

Black’s main problem here was his time trouble but if he had found 38…cxd5 he might have had some winning chances.

39 Qe5 dxc4 40 Qxc7 Qb4

The 40th move is reached with Black a pawn up, but White can give perpetual check.

41 Qc8+ Kf7 42 Qf5+ Ke7 43 Qe5+ Kf7

43…Kd8 would allow 44 Qxg7 when White should be quite safe.

44 Qf5+ Ke7 45 Qe5+ Kf7 ½–½

The last game to finish was Nigel Short versus Ni Hua. Short won a pawn in the early middlegame but lost his way and couldn’t make anything of it, though the game went right down to the last pawn. But the players received a reward for their endeavour: they shared the best game of the round prize of 1,000 euros.

Current scores after four of the seven rounds are as follows: Carlsen 8/12, Kramnik 7, McShane, Nakamura, Adams, Howell 4, Short, Ni Hua 3. Sunday’s pairings are Howell-Kramnik, Nakamura-McShane, Ni Hua-Carlsen, Adams-Short.

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