London Chess Classic, Playoff Final: Carlsen Defeats Vachier-Lagrave to Win London and the Grand Chess Tour

And then there were two. The champion's title at the London Chess Classic would be decided in a two-game rapid match (with an Armaggedon blitz game to follow, if necessary) between Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. This final match would also decide overall victory in the Grand Chess Tour - but only if Carlsen won. If Vachier-Lagrave were to win, then they would finish the Tour in a tie and would (incredibly) have to play another rapid match on Monday to decide that title.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of drama in the match, but there was one critical moment. Carlsen easily outplayed Vachier-Lagrave in game one, but only up to a point. Carlsen squandered a huge advantage, and Vachier-Lagrave was on the verge of saving the game. Carlsen did a nice job of posing a few last problems for his opponent, and MVL finally stumbled on the last hurdle. The sequence 51...h2! 52.Re2 Ra1! 53.Rxh2 Ra8! 54.Re2 Rh8+ saves the game with a nice series of rook moves (alas, the next move isn't ...Rh1). Black's rook has sufficient distance and White's pawn hasn't crossed the Rubicon, and the try 55.Kg5 Rg8+ 56.Kf4 Rf8+ 57.Kg3 Rg8 58.Re4 it's crucial that Black has 58...Ke5!, not allowing White's king to march back up the board with the g-pawn safely protected. Vachier-Lagrave missed this, and Carlsen went on to win a few moves later.

The second game was an anti-climax. Vachier-Lagrave got nothing from the opening and was clearly worse early in the middlegame. The only question was whether Carlsen would win, and the answer was a kind of yes-and-no: he built his advantage into a decisive one, but allowed his opponent to save some face with a charity repetition at the end. (The games, with my notes, are here.)

As mentioned above, victory in the tournament also gave Carlsen victory in the first edition of the Grand Chess Tour and a cool $75,000 bonus. Deservedly so? Stay tuned for another post, which will address the Tour's absurd tiebreak system.

London Chess Classic, Round 9: Carlsen Beats Grischuk To Tie For First

The London Chess Classic has just finished, but rather than post about the tiebreaks too I'll divide the material into two (or maybe three) posts. Let's start with the final round, which saw Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave enter tied for first, with Magnus Carlsen, Alexander Grischuk and Levon Aronian half a point behind. The last round pairings were just about ideal, with Aronian paired with Vachier-Lagrave and Carlsen paired with Grischuk; only Giri (with Black against Anand) wasn't facing someone with a direct stake in the race for first.

Giri equalized with ease against Anand in a well-worn line of the Berlin. Anand only innovated on move 27, and the players started to repeat moves several moves later. Aronian played with more motivation against MVL, but the result was the same: a comfortable draw for Black, which like Giri-Anand finished after 33 moves.

Carlsen-Grischuk was much more interesting. The players revisited a sharp line of the Moscow Variation of the Sicilian, with Grischuk repeating 7...g5, used successfully by Topalov against Carlsen in round 1 of the Sinquefield Cup. Carlsen improved and obtained an advantage, and things were proceeding smoothly for him until around move 27. Errors on moves 27, 28 and especially move 30 gave Grischuk not only sufficient counterplay for a draw, but even a chance to win the game outright and reach the playoff. To win (or at least to obtain a decisive advantage; there was still some work that needed to be done to collect the full point) he needed to spot 30...Rxg4. With more time on the clock there's little doubt that he would have played this; instead 30...fxe6 allowed Carlsen to retain equal chances. Unfortunately for Grischuk, but fortunately for Carlsen (who seems to have an almost infinite supply of good luck), Black missed (or rejected) an easy draw on move 31, and then erred on moves 32 and 34 to lose the game before the time control. Carlsen thus tied for first, and qualified for a playoff involving Giri and MVL - more on that in a later post.

Wrapping things up with the other players, Michael Adams and Fabiano Caruana drew in a Ruy (not a Berlin) that was very well played by both sides, and that meant that they both finished with nine draws in nine games. Finally, Hikaru Nakamura and Veselin Topalov drew in a Berlin, putting an end to what was a disappointing tournament for both players, as they came into the London Chess Classic second and first in the overall Tour standings.

We'll get to the events of the tiebreakers next; but here were the (unfinished) standings after round 9:

• 1-3. Carlsen, Giri, Vachier-Lagrave 5.5
• 4. Aronian 5
• 5-7. Grischuk, Caruana, Adams 4.5
• 8. Nakamura 4
• 9. Anand 3.5
• 10. Topalov 2.5

The games, with my comments, are here.

London Chess Classic, Round 7: Three Wins and No Berlins

It took a while, but in round 7 of the London Chess Classic the drawing glut finally abated, and three games finished with a winner. Up to this point in the tournament only five games had been decisive, with Veselin Topalov losing three and Viswanathan Anand losing two. The bad news for their fans is that they constituted two of the day's three victims, losing to Levon Aronian (very badly) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (thanks mainly to a one-move blunder). The third victim was Hikaru Nakamura, who lost to Magnus Carlsen for the 12th(!) time in classical chess without a single win to his credit. (He has of course drawn plenty of games with Carlsen, and beaten him at faster time controls.)

The day's other games saw well-played draws between Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri and between Michael Adams and Alexander Grischuk. All of the games, with my annotations, can be replayed here.

Vachier-Lagrave is the sole leader with two rounds to go, while Grischuk, Aronian, Carlsen and Giri are just half a point behind and Caruana, Adams and Nakamura are just another half a point back. 80% of the field is still in the running for first place! Here are the pairings for round 8:

• Giri (4) - Nakamura (3.5)
• Topalov (1.5) - Carlsen (4)
• Grischuk (4) - Aronian (4)
• Vachier-Lagrave (4.5) - Adams (3.5)
• Caruana (3.5) - Anand (2.5)

An aside: on the Live Rating list it's a bit like old times: Carlsen is in first (of course), but Kramnik is in second and Aronian has fought all the way back to third, and is one win from taking over the #2 spot. Aronian's selection as the wildcard for next year's Candidates' is a great choice, but it's a pity Kramnik won't be participating as well.

Magnus Carlsen Profiled in The Telegraph

In anticipation of the London Chess Classic, which begins a few days from now, the English newspaper The Telegraph has published a pretty decent profile of the world champion, Magnus Carlsen.

HT: David McCarthy

World Blitz Championship, Day 1: Vachier-Lagrave Leads With 9.5/11

It was a very exciting first day of the World Blitz Championship, and through ten rounds it was a two-horse race between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Magnus Carlsen. Both players won their first four games, and then Carlsen was held to a draw by Tigran Petrosian in round 5. MVL won his fifth in a row, but then Carlsen defeated him in their head-to-head match-up in round 6. Carlsen drew in round 7 with Aronian while Vachier-Lagrave won again, so they were tied at 6/7 and kept winning through round 10. Finally, both players experienced a bit of kryptonite in the last round of the day. Carlsen was beaten in good style by Sergey Karjakin, while Vachier-Lagrave was held to a draw by Teimour Radjabov - and he was fortunate not to lose.

There are ten more rounds to be played today (Wednesday), and here are the current standings at the top:

• 1. Vachier-Lagrave 9.5
• 2. Carlsen 9
• 3-4. Karjakin, Dominguez 8.5
• 5-7. Aronian, Radjabov, Kramnik 8
• 9-25. Too many to list, all with 7.5

World Rapid Championship: Carlsen Wins Again

Surprise! Magnus Carlsen won his first two games today, the third day of the World Rapid Championship. - the second a heartbreaker for Vasil Ivanchuk, who was first better and then for a long time drawing before Carlsen somehow pulled it out - and that put him at a huge score of 10/12. From there three draws sufficed to win the tournament by a full point over his closest competitors. There were three of them, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Teimour Radjabov and Leinier Dominguez, and it was the last-named player who was the unlucky fourth. "Nepo" won the silver on tiebreaks and Radjabov garnered a bronze. Loads of players were another half a point behind, including such greats as Ivanchuk, Vladimir Kramnik Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

The World Blitz Championship starts tomorrow at the same venue and with most of the same players. It would be fun if Hikaru Nakamura and other top players in the Millionaire Open made the flight to Berlin, but that would really be a bit too crazy. Fun, but crazy.

Sinquefield Cup 2015, Round 8: Aronian Leads By A Point Entering the Last Round

For the first time in the tournament, all five games were drawn, leaving Levon Aronian a full point ahead with a round to go. Had he won against Viswanathan Anand he would have guaranteed himself of clear first, and Anand's opening surely gave him hopes of a full point. Garry Kasparov was watching on site, and remarked that Anand's opening choice (on the black side of an English, the reversed Rossolimo) was something he had dismissed many years earlier. In fact, Anand himself admitted after the game that he needed some convincing before he would take the variation seriously! But after some hard work he rehabilitated it to his satisfaction, and at best Aronian might have had some chances for an edge. In the game he was unable to keep an advantage for very long, and Anand achieved a comfortable draw.

Four players came into the round a point behind Aronian, so this was their chance to make up some ground before the final round. Two of them, Alexander Grischuk and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, played each other, but unfortunately there weren't any fireworks. The game transposed to the same line of the Symmetrical English MVL tried against Magnus Carlsen in round 3. Vachier-Lagrave lost that game, but improved this time and was never in any serious danger. The players called it a day after just 30 moves, one less than was required in Aronian-Anand.

Another player with a chance to gain ground was Anish Giri, who had the white pieces against Fabiano Caruana. Caruana played a Gruenfeld and chose the unusual move 9...e5. He equalized quickly and even won a pawn thanks to some poor play by Giri prior to the time control. Caruana may have had some opportunities to improve, but when they reached a rook and two pawns vs. rook and one pawn ending the draw was inevitable. Caruana played until move 69 before accepting the inevitable.

The big game of the day was Magnus Carlsen vs. Hikaru Nakamura, and after a terrible opening choice by the American and some further inaccuracies after that Carlsen obtained a completely winning advantage. With an 11-0 score against Nakamura in decisive games at a classical time control the point seemed to be in the bag, and with a win Carlsen would close to within half a point of Aronian. Somehow, it wasn't to be. Nakamura defended resourcefully, and when Carlsen played 39.Be3?? ("A moment of insanity" - Carlsen) Black was able to escape to an ending with rook and two pawns vs. two bishops and two pawns, with all the pawns on the same side. Carlsen tried until move 95, but there was no breaching Black's fortress. A second consecutive huge disappointment for Carlsen, and for Nakamura this may just be the confidence-builder he needs to finally get a win against Carlsen in the near future.

Finally, Wesley So and Veselin Topalov went 50 moves, but the only especially noteworthy feature of the game is that So finished with more time than he started with.

The games, with my comments, are here. The final round pairings are as follows:

• Topalov (4) - Aronian (5.5)
• Anand (3) - Carlsen (4.5)
• Vachier-Lagrave (4.5) - Giri (4.5)
• Nakamura (4) - Grischuk (4.5)
• Caruana (3) - So (2.5)

The bottom line is clear: if Aronian scores, he wins the tournament; if he loses and Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave, Giri (inclusive) or Grischuk win, there will be a playoff.

Sinquefield Cup 2015, Round 5: Carlsen & Aronian Lead Going Into the Rest Day

Round 5 of the Sinquefield Cup saw loads of action. Only one of the games was a "correct" draw, and even it was a good fight with some interesting moments.

Entering the round Levon Aronian and Veselin Topalov were tied for first; exiting the round it's Aronian and Magnus Carlsen who share the lead. (Just like the good old days!) Topalov had the white pieces against Fabiano Caruana, and obtained a very pleasant advantage in a 4.d3 Berlin. After the game Topalov said that he lacked the energy to play, and should have bailed out with a draw (24.Rc1 Na2 25.Ra1 Nb4 26.Rc1 etc.) while he had the chance. Instead, he went down, bit by bit, and after 35.Ng2? f4 the game was Caruana's to win, and he did.

Aronian also had White, against Alexander Grischuk, and also got into trouble. Playing an English that turned into a Panov-Botvinnik Attack against the Caro-Kann, Aronian played the very unusual 7.Bg5, and his idea a couple of moves later to double Black's pawns with 9.Qe2+ Be6 10.Bxf6 didn't turn out very well. Later he was clearly worse, but it's a rare game when Grischuk doesn't get into time trouble. A series of inaccuracies from moves 24-26 (he was already below six minutes by that point) squandered his advantage, and the players shook hands on move 31.

This gave Carlsen the chance to catch up, and he did with a nice but imperfect win over Wesley So. Carlsen played a known pawn sac in the Byrne Attack of the Najdorf, obtaining the bishop pair and a strong grip on d5 in return. Carlsen worked his positional magic, but made some serious errors along the way. The first was the worst, when 33.Nc4? (??) could have been met by the sham exchange sac 33...Rxc4!, after which White's advantage is gone in its entirety. So missed that, and then Carlsen blundered again with 40.Nd4; 40.Nxc5 won on the spot. Instead, Carlsen had to fight hard to prove the win, but he rose to the challenge and finally collected the point. Carlsen still isn't playing great, but a combination of good-enough play and some luck (vs. Caruana in round 2, So missing a fairly simple tactic here) has him tied for first with 3.5/5.

The game between Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri was very exciting, possibly made even more exciting when Nakamura forgot his preparation and got into some trouble. He was resourceful after that, and his counterattacking play came close to delivering the full point in his favor. Giri found the defensive moves he needed, however, and the game finished in a well-earned draw.

Finally, Viswanathan Anand managed to win a pawn in a complicated game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, but in the end there weren't any real chances to exploit it in the resulting rook ending and the game ended peacefully.

The players are now enjoying a well-deserved rest day, and will resume play on Saturday. You can tide yourselves over with my annotations to yesterday's games, and on Saturday we'll see the following games - including the battle of the leaders:

• Grischuk (2) - Caruana (2)
• Vachier-Lagrave (2.5) - Topalov (3)
• Giri (3) - Anand (1.5)
• So (1.5) - Nakamura (2.5)
• Aronian (3.5) - Carlsen (3.5)

Carlsen on Changing the World Championship Format

Before becoming the world champion, Magnus Carlsen complained about the privileges the champion receives; in particular, being automatically seeded into a final match against a challenger who had to qualify through an arduous multi-stage process. Carlsen was not the first player without the title to protest the champion's advantages, but he would be among the first to surrender them - if it in fact comes to that. To his credit, he seems genuinely open to a privilege-free format like the old and little-loved knockout tournaments FIDE called championships from 1997 to 2004, and which have been repurposed a level down as World Cup events. (They're still used for every other women's world championship as well.) My own view is that it's a horrible format that devalues and deromanticizes the champion's title, but others may find it delightful for exactly the same reasons.

What say you? Should the world chess champion be more like a boxing champion or the winner of Wimbledon?

Norway Chess 2015, Round 5: Topalov Wins Again; Carlsen, Aronian Win Their First

The Norway Chess tournament has passed the halfway point, and Veselin Topalov continues his success. When he's not playing Norwegians, he wins cleanly; when he does, he hangs in there and waits for miracles to happen. And that's what happened in round 5. Topalov was in all kinds of trouble with Black against Jon Ludwig Hammer. Maybe he was never flat out lost, but it was close! Topalov finally took over the advantage from move 42 on, yet Hammer defended well and was on the verge of a draw after 73 moves. All he needed to do was play 74.f5, a move that any club player could find and that requires calculating a grand total of two moves ahead. Instead, Hammer played 74.Kc6?? and had to resign after the obvious 74...Ke6. A blind spot for Hammer?

Yes, but perhaps it was a literal blind spot. It was suggested, very plausibly, that Hammer didn't really look up when Topalov played 73...Ke7 and assumed that Black had played 73...Bb8 instead. In that case, 74.Kc6 would have been the only move. Hammer's haste cost him the game, and completely unnecessarily, especially since he had 15 minutes left on his clock when that happened.

With the win Topalov leads the second-placed Hikaru Nakamura by a point with an impressive score of 4.5/5. Nakamura started the round half a point behind, but after a draw with Viswanathan Anand the gap doubled. Anand is a further half a point back, tied for 3rd-4th with Anish Giri, who in turn drew comfortably with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

The other two games finished with a winner, and like Hammer-Topalov those victories had a tinge of the accidental to them. In fact, all three games were decided by hasty moves, though in the two games we haven't yet described that haste was due to time trouble. Levon Aronian had an opening edge against Fabiano Caruana, but Caruana had equalized and the game was headed for a draw as the first time control neared its end. 39...Qg6 would have sealed the deal, giving Caruana full, safe equality and the ability to reach the second time control without any big worries. Instead, he thought he spotted an opportunity and quickly played 39...Qxg3+. It's a nice little tactic, and...it loses. Black wins a pawn for the moment, but White's king achieves maximum activity and ransacks all of Black's queenside pawns. Caruana fought on to move 60, but there was no saving the game.

Finally, Magnus Carlsen had been having a dreadful tournament with only half a point out of four, and despite this he showed his resilience by winning in classic Carlsen style. Alexander Grischuk had managed to equalize, though as usual with Grischuk he didn't manage to do this without getting into time trouble. With the game about to reach the point where a club player could hold Grischuk's position Carlsen tried one last idea: 26.c5! Grischuk could and should have held this, but without time it was far from trivial. Carlsen obtained a very usable edge, though perhaps not yet enough to win the game. On move 40, it was time for another trick: 40.f4. This may not have been the very best move, and had Grischuk replied correctly he probably would have saved the game. Time trouble killed him, though, and 40...exf4?? made it easy for the world champion. (The games, with my notes, are here.)

Carlsen has awakened, and while it's almost impossible for him to contend for first it's not too late for him to do some damage. Next up, he has the white pieces against one of his usual "customers", Hikaru Nakamura. If Nakamura had White it might be a great opportunity for the American to get a '1', but with Black it may be another story. We'll see; meanwhile, here are the pairings for round 6:

• Grischuk (2) - Topalov (4.5)
• Caruana (2) - Hammer (1)
• Giri (3) - Aronian (2)
• Anand (3) - Vachier-Lagrave (2.5)
• Carlsen (1.5) - Nakamura (3.5)