2009 London Chess Classic
Tomorrow will kick off the highly anticipated London Chess Classic with a marquee lineup including former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and the world’s #1 rated player in Magnus Carlsen.
The field will also include current U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura and one of China’s top guns in Ni Hua. The British will trot out their top brass with super-GMs Michael Adams and Nigel Short along with Luke McShane and top British junior in GM David Howell.
The tournament has added significance due to the legendary flavor and the number of subplots, surrounding age vs. tradition, but there is also the idea that we may be seeing a future rivalry of chess. Nakmura beat Carlsen in a recent blitz match. Carlsen will be looking for redemption.
Carlsen and Kramnik draws lots. The two will meet in round #1!
Photo by Frederic Friedel.
Main Site: https://www.londonchessclassic.com/
TWIC: https://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/events/london-chess-classic-2009
Videos: ICC/Chess.FM, ICC/YouTube
Wah!! Carlsen played a GREAT game. Don’t know the last time I saw Kramnik fall victim to a positional crush. He had no constructive moves for more than half the game. This boy is something!
Nakamura looks to have messed the endgame…he was winning(?)…let’s see what happens.
Mcshane likes playing these long drawn out technical positions. Let’s hope he now doesn’t let Carlsen simply steamroll over the ‘weaker’ players (now that Kramnik is ‘out of the way’).
Knowing Short’s ego (was on display here in Nairobi when he crushed all top Kenyans something like 25-0 in blitz few years back) this one must have hurt him real bad. Oh he must be feeling terrible. Too bad chess does not have paparazzi involved coz that would be interesting to see!
Nakamura did very well fighting hard for the draw in game 2. Good job Naka.
Carlsen is becoming stronger by the month. By end of next year he may have a rating that is plus 2850. I don’t see anyone who can stop him from becoming the World Champ. Is he in the running for the cycle that picks 2012 challenger? He could break Kasparov’s record of youngest world champion.
I am looking forward to the Nakamura-Carlsen clash. I don’t think Nakamura is on Carlsen’s level at classical time controls but this one is going to be interesting.
David Held. I thought Carlsen was going to be up with a hat trick- 3 out of 3. Good draw. Now lets brace for the anticipated Carlsen VS Nakamura tomorrow. Any predictions people. Come on guys lets be bold here. I will say Naka but with the way Carlsen is playing , I dont know what to say about this one. Its hard to predict.
Carlsen’s career trajectory thus far has been more or less perfect. +2800 ELO, No.1 rating, Kasparov as trainer, youth etc. But yesterday’s missed win can today give Nakamura an opportunity to puncture a hole into the Carlsen phenomenon. I am not saying this will seriously dent the Norwegian’s drive toward ultimate world championship glory but I think a Nakamura win today will create some small doubts about the whole Carlsen thing and will give Nakamura a lot of psychlogical fire-power.
I will be cheering for Nakamura today!
I am delighted to see four of Nigeria’s Olympiad veterans taking part in the FIDE Open section of the London Chess classics :
Sylvia Chidi, Kenneth Odeh, Chiedu Maduekwe and Odion Aikhoje.
Odeh told me he was going to play at the classics and wanted me to come along too. I also saw Chiedus name but didn’t know Chidi and Odion are playing in the tourney. Thats good. We shall give them some coverage soon.
I think in game 2 against GM Hebden, after move 39…….Kg6, Odion should have been looking for a draw right there with the way the position was and not attempt to win at all cost haven went out with a powerful king side attack which was defended well by Hebden. This I think is the reason he lost this game not because his king was exposed even after his assault on the king side. Even with his exposed king, one can see that he was still okay until he continued with 42…..Rb2 for some more activity that his king was then left isolated. Good game though. He recovered quickly after this loss and went on to win his last 4 games with the last 2 games against higher rated players with 2400s. His game today against GM Wells of England should be interesting.
Odion Missed the win against GM Hebden on move 33. instead of 33…… Bd3 he should have taken 33 … BxN .Either way 34)KxB Rf8 or 34RxB Rf8 and exchange the white rook 35) RxR KxR
Queen give a check on 36)Qh8+ and black excape the checks via the black quares and the C pawn is deadly with whites king cut off from that side of the board.
I was also delighted yesterday to see Femi Adebajo (taking part in the rapidplay section), Paul Obiamiwe (who couldn’t show up earlier due to personal reasons and therefore opted for the blitz events) and Gbenga Onanuga, at the London Chess classics
events.
I was wondering why Femi Adebajo was not playing at the classics since he is an active chess player but happy that he is indeed playing. I will look them all up soon. I miss Sylvia Chidis name in my earlier release but will make up for it next time. She has the same point as Odeh.
I just found this blog, I should say (and I really like it). Excuse my newbie chatter. I thought the London Classic was a blast, especially with commentary. Worth waking up early every morning with the Java to guess who was going to move where next. Work be damned. You could see the games being played live on one channel while hearing the ICC commentators on another (the games didn’t show well on ICC). Although the ICC commentators were often wrong (no surprise at this level), it was interesting.
I was surprised and impressed by Luke Mcshane. My advice to Luke: Go professional. Give it a shot for at least a year. Use your great talent while you are in your 20s. Don’t wait. You can always go back to Goldman-Sacks. Chess at the grandmaster level is fleeting. Day jobs last forever. Study up and go roll a few super grandmasters. Make money later. I was hitchhiking in Reading, England when I was 22. A 27 year-old stopped to give me a ride and asked if I was working or studying. I said I was done studying and now worried about job prospects. He just laughed about my being worried. “Plenty of time”, he said. Plenty of time, Luke.
— stuck in a day job in Northern California
I want to add that I admired the fighting chess from everyone in that tournament. Not just McShane. Bravo to Nigel short, even tho he’s probably not happy with his outcome. I’m happy to see that he is coming back up. And David was a revelation as well.
We more or less knew what to expect from Carlsen, Kramnick, Nakamura: chess at a very high level, tactically and positionally.
I think Rowe had a great tournament considering the fact that he is not very active and works such long hours. However there are some traits that are visible in many of his games: Commital moves, positional concessions especially with pawn moves and the under estimation of the opponent’s possibilities-case in point against Pupier he missed a retreat.However these experiences are priceless and he needs them before the Olympiad.He also demonstrated a lot of resilience in putting bad games behind him and building up an impressive score.He will do his performance review and Iam sure build on this.Often promising players do not build on their good performances with long absences.
Rest assured Daaim, thats an issue we spoke about last night. He will be doing his performance review and he is “fully loaded” with the software and materials. We have devised a certain way to do it.
He is very serious about what he wants. The fact that he left Jamaica to seek this experience is one step in the right direction. More experience will help him.
Where is Chiedu Maduekwe now?
I have no idea. Babatunde Ogunsiku of africachessmedia.com may know.