London 2011, Round 8: Kramnik Defeats McShane, Leads With One Round To Play (Updated)
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 3:25PM It has been a horse race at the London Chess Classic, and entering the round it looked like we might be in for a photo finish. We still might, but going into tomorrow's last round there's a clear leader: Vladimir Kramnik. It was the last game to finish, but he finally pulled out a crazy win against Luke McShane, who entered the day tied with Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen for first. It seemed like anything was possible near the end of the first time control, but after 41.c5 f5+ the game was Kramnik's to win, and he did.
Carlsen got a very easy draw with Black against Viswanathan Anand, who seems content to play out the string with draws, and the other games were drawn as well. Hikaru Nakamura could have hopped into clear second with a win over a struggling Nigel Short, but despite trying for 90 moves the game probably could have been abandoned 60 moves earlier. Still, you've got to tip your hat to his fighting spirit!
Finally, it seemed like Levon Aronian had some chances to win with Black against David Howell, but these were either illusory or he let him slip out of danger. Either way, it was a topsy-turvy day for the natives, as none of the tail-ending Englishmen lost while the one who was leading finally did.
Standings After Round 8 (based on 3-1-0 scoring; all players but Howell have had their byes):
1. Kramnik 15
2. Carlsen 13
3-4. McShane, Nakamura 12
5-6. Anand, Aronian 8
7. Short 5
8. Howell 4
9. Adams 3
Final round pairings:
- McShane - Anand
- Nakamura - Adams
- Short - Carlsen
- Kramnik - Aronian
- Howell - bye
Note that tomorrow's games start two hours earlier than usual, at noon local time/7 a.m. ET.
Games later.
UPDATE: the round 8 games are here, with annotations.
Kramnik in London 2011
Reader Comments (5)
I heard that Kramnik has better tie breaks than Carlsen so it seems he just needs a draw to win the tournament. So he is in good shape.
Nakamura tweeted that Nigel Short "played his best game of the tournament"---which may be true and even indicated by my model---but it strikes me more that Nakamura himself closed the position and killed the mutual chances. Maybe he has too much respect for the Black side of the K.I.D.?
Any plans to analyze McShane-Kramnik? A pretty interesting game . . .
I’ve commented during the Tal Memorial about how fascinating the games between Carlsen and Kramnik tend to be – in contrast, it’s worth noting how utterly uninteresting the games between Carlsen and Anand have become lately (Bilbao, Tal Memorial, and here), especially when Carlsen is playing Black. It looks like none of the two really tries to play for a win, which is hardly surprising as far as Anand is concerned (considering the way he has been playing lately); but Carlsen used to play very differently against him. Compare, for example, his choice of the Berlin against Anand’s 1.e4 in Bilbao (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1639879) with the sharp Breyer line (16…cxb5) that he played against him several times in 2010, including the game he lost in London (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1602101). Maybe after several losses in sharp tactical positions, where he overpressed, Carlsen decided it’s better to leave Anand alone and not try too hard against him.
Predicition - Carlsen and Kramnik will win by 1 point with Nakamura second.
McShane-Anand 1/2 - 1/2
Short - Carlsen 0-1
Kramnik - Aronian 1/2 - 1/2
Nakamura - Adams 1-0