LCC Open 01: Top seeds coast to victories

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 10/12/2016

The final leg of the Grand Chess Tour has begun with bloodshed. The London Chess Classic's main event is the ten-player super tournament but also of importance is the FIDE Open that runs simultaneously. Nine players rated above 2600 are playing in the 247-player Open led by Azeri GM Eltaj Safarli and Frenchmen GM Etienne Bacrot and GM Laurent Fressinet. We bring you the games and details. Illustrated report.

LCC Open 01: Top seeds coast to victories

Pictures: Lennart Ootes

The London Chess Classic is a chess mega-festival. The main attraction is the Classic itself with ten of the world's best players playing. Besides the Pro-Biz Cup that was held before the main festivities began, the event has a FIDE Open that has 247 players from 41 countries including 34 grandmasters and 24 international masters. The British Knock-Out event is another attraction with the best British players duking it out against each other in a rapid KO event. Add to this the Super Rapidplay event and the various category tournaments.

The biggest chunk of the total participants is English with 92 players from the host country and the second biggest group is Indian with 21 players. The time control is the cozy 90 minutes for 40 moves and 30 minutes for rest of the game with 30 seconds increment from the first move.

Second seed GM Etienne Bacrot (2689)

Third seed Laurent Fressinet (2672)

The British Knockout Championship 2016 began with eight players.

Each round comprises of two standardplay games and possible rapidplay play-offs. After a bloody battle in the first stage of the knockout, four players were left to face each other in the semifinals.

Nigel Short and Luke McShane drew their first semifinal game.

And so did Gawain Jones and David Howell.

The playing arena

Notable Games:

The top seeds in the Open had a smooth outing as you can see from the following games:

White just played Bc1 attacking the knight on f4. Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta (2634) had it covered. Black to play.

[Event "London FIDE Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.12.09"]
[Round "1.6"]
[White "Klingher, Dominic"]
[Black "Gupta, Abhijeet"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B50"]
[WhiteElo "2126"]
[BlackElo "2634"]
[PlyCount "54"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[WhiteClock "1:06:44"]
[BlackClock "0:09:46"]

1. e4 {0} c5 {31} 2. Nf3 {81} d6 {35} 3. d3 {60} Nc6 {11} 4. Nbd2 {24} g6 {40}
5. Be2 {83} Bg7 {7} 6. O-O {41} e5 {151} 7. c3 {41} Nge7 {12} 8. Qc2 {419} O-O
{76} 9. Re1 {331} h6 {32} 10. b3 {921} d5 {376} 11. exd5 {141} Nxd5 {5} 12. Bb2
{42} Re8 {62} 13. Rad1 {93} b6 {102} 14. Nc4 {257} Nf4 {102} 15. Bf1 {709} Bg4
{41} 16. Ncd2 {208} Qc7 {278} 17. h3 {326} Bf5 {6} 18. Ne4 {84} Rad8 {21} 19.
Ng3 {154} Bc8 {26} 20. d4 {256} exd4 {323} 21. Rxe8+ {33} Rxe8 {3} 22. cxd4 {20
} Rd8 {16} 23. Qe4 {276} Bb7 {352} 24. Bc1 {149} Nxh3+ {56} 25. gxh3 {493} Nxd4
{6} 26. Nxd4 {362} Bxe4 {46} 27. Nb5 {20} Qxg3+ {20} 0-1

French GM Matthieu Cornette (2597) playing white has several ways to maintain an advantage. But there is one move that is crushing and wins. White to play.

[Event "London FIDE Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.12.09"]
[Round "1.11"]
[White "Cornette, Matthieu"]
[Black "Harari, Zaki"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C50"]
[WhiteElo "2597"]
[BlackElo "2102"]
[PlyCount "73"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[WhiteClock "0:01:52"]
[BlackClock "0:47:50"]

1. e4 {0} e5 {13} 2. Nf3 {1} Nc6 {21} 3. Bc4 {6} Bc5 {32} 4. O-O {18} Nf6 {40}
5. d3 {8} d6 {30} 6. c3 {5} a6 {118} 7. a4 {81} O-O {117} 8. Bg5 {48} h6 {229}
9. Bh4 {46} Bb6 {148} 10. Na3 {109} Qe7 {490} 11. Re1 {97} Bg4 {511} 12. h3 {65
} Bh5 {5} 13. g4 {81} Bg6 {5} 14. Nc2 {260} Nd8 {335} 15. d4 {266} c6 {191} 16.
a5 {257} Bc7 {49} 17. d5 {17} cxd5 {650} 18. exd5 {360} Rc8 {609} 19. Bd3 {172}
Bb8 {359} 20. Nfd4 {255} Ba7 {275} 21. Qf3 {193} Rc5 {858} 22. c4 {220} Bxd3 {
286} 23. Qxd3 {8} Qc7 {69} 24. Bxf6 exd4 {24} (24... gxf6 25. Nf5 Rxc4 26.
Nxh6+ Kg7 27. Nf5+ Kh8 28. Nce3 Rf4 29. Rec1 Qd7 30. Rc4 $18) 25. Be7 {246} Ne6
{268} (25... Re8 26. Bxd6 Rxe1+ 27. Rxe1 Qxd6 28. Re8+ {loses the queen.}) 26.
Bxf8 {42 wins the exchange.} Nxf8 {6} 27. Nxd4 {190} Rxc4 {29} 28. Nc6 {
26 wins another exchange!} Rxc6 {202} 29. dxc6 {5} Qxc6 {40} 30. Rac1 {28} Qd7
{8} 31. Qc4 {92} d5 {92} 32. Qc7 {50} Qa4 {26} 33. Qd8 {300} Qf4 {154} 34.
Qxf8+ {10 finishing in style.} Kh7 {5} 35. Qa3 {60} Qxf2+ {104} 36. Kh1 {3} Bb8
{0} 37. Qd3+ {15 White has to take care to play Re2, to not get mated.} 1-0

GM Jonathan Hawkins is playing in the Open after being knocked out from the British KO. White to play. Mate in 6!

[Event "London FIDE Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.12.09"]
[Round "1.13"]
[White "Hawkins, Jonathan"]
[Black "Compton, Alistair"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D25"]
[WhiteElo "2590"]
[BlackElo "2099"]
[PlyCount "63"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[WhiteClock "0:01:31"]
[BlackClock "0:28:17"]

1. d4 {0} d5 {19} 2. c4 {0} dxc4 {18} 3. Nf3 {26} Nf6 {14} 4. e3 {6} Bg4 {11}
5. Bxc4 {132} e6 {7} 6. h3 Bh5 7. Nc3 {107} Nc6 {61} 8. Bb5 {98} Bd6 {50} 9. e4
{495} Nd7 {10} 10. Be3 {111} O-O {104} 11. Qd2 {648} Nb6 12. g4 Bg6 {797} 13.
h4 {52} h5 {523} 14. Ng5 {172} e5 {1572} 15. d5 {465} Nd4 {285} 16. Be2 {27}
hxg4 {525} 17. h5 {101} Bh7 {16} 18. h6 {71} Bg6 {715} 19. O-O-O {844} Be7 {330
} 20. hxg7 {144} Kxg7 {23} 21. f4 {6} Nxe2+ {389} 22. Qxe2 {7} Bxg5 {136} 23.
fxg5 {23} Rh8 {46} 24. Rh6 {63} Rxh6 {239} 25. gxh6+ {6} Kh7 {4} 26. Qxg4 {55}
Nc4 {64} 27. Rf1 {93} Qe7 {69} 28. Bg5 {39} Qb4 {23} 29. Rxf7+ {437} Kg8 {136}
(29... Bxf7 30. Qf5+ Kg8 31. h7+ Kf8 (31... Kg7 32. Bf6+ Kf8 33. h8=Q+) (31...
Kh8 32. Bf6#) 32. h8=Q#) 30. Rf2 {304 Hawkins misses the mate but he is still
winning hands down.} (30. h7+ $1 Kxf7 (30... Kh8 31. Bf6#) (30... Bxh7 31. Bh6+
Kxf7 32. Qe6#) 31. Qd7+ Qe7 32. Qxe7#) 30... Rf8 {48} 31. Qe6+ {73} Bf7 {35}
32. Qf6 {58} 1-0

Of course, Eric Blomqvist (2567) can just pick the rook on d1 and win. But at this moment, he has a Mate in 5! Can you find the mate?

[Event "London FIDE Open"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.12.09"]
[Round "1.16"]
[White "Mueller, Martin"]
[Black "Blomqvist, Erik"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D17"]
[WhiteElo "2088"]
[BlackElo "2567"]
[PlyCount "60"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]
[WhiteClock "0:48:50"]
[BlackClock "0:03:40"]

1. d4 {0} d5 {7} 2. c4 {0} c6 {8} 3. Nc3 {0} Nf6 {10} 4. Nf3 {0} dxc4 {19} 5.
a4 {0} Bf5 {8} 6. Nh4 {5} e6 {33} 7. Nxf5 {7} exf5 {7} 8. Bg5 {10} Nbd7 {106}
9. e3 {179} Qa5 {55} 10. Bxf6 Nxf6 {8} 11. Bxc4 {188} Bd6 {222} 12. Qb3 {470}
O-O {228} 13. O-O {867} Rab8 {258} 14. g3 {153} g6 {83} 15. Rfd1 {197} a6 {246}
16. Qa2 {537} Kg7 {48} 17. Qb3 {173} h5 {89} 18. h4 {764} Qc7 {113} 19. Kg2 {
141} Rfe8 {77} 20. Ne2 {469} Re7 {332} 21. Nf4 {441} Rbe8 {531} 22. Be2 {432}
Bxf4 {411} 23. gxf4 {8} Nd5 {24} 24. Bc4 {262} Nxe3+ {168} 25. fxe3 {329} Rxe3
{36} 26. Qc2 {15} Qxf4 {26} 27. Ra3 {48} Qf3+ {163} 28. Kg1 {354} Re1+ {24} 29.
Kh2 {18} Qh1+ {34} 30. Kg3 {13} Rxd1 {26 wins the queen but is not mating.} (
30... R8e3+ 31. Rxe3 Qg1+ {the quickest mate.} (31... Rxe3+ 32. Kf2 Rf3+ 33.
Ke2 Qg2+ {is also mating but after 10 more moves!}) 32. Qg2 f4+ 33. Kxf4 (33.
Kh3 Rxe3+) 33... Qxe3#) 0-1

Besides the games from the main event, the players cum spectators had plenty of chess to cheer.

But the Open had one particular player who is the toast of London these days with the media people queuing for interviews...

World's youngest International Master R. Praggnanandhaa. We will bring you a special report on his participation in London soon!

Pairings for Round 02:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	58	IM	Bates Richard A	2347	1		1	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2691	1
2	2	GM	Bacrot Etienne	2689	1		1		Zujev Oleg	2340	60
3	61	FM	Gedajlovic Max	2338	1		1	GM	Fressinet Laurent	2672	3
4	4	GM	Smirin Ilya	2669	1		1	IM	Moen Andreas	2327	62
5	64	FM	Paterek Michal	2311	1		1	GM	Iturrizaga Edoardo	2652	5
6	6	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2634	1		1	FM	Sowray Peter J	2307	66
7	65	FM	Franklin Samuel Ga	2310	1		1	GM	Melkumyan Hrant	2633	7
8	8	GM	Hovhannisyan Robert	2630	1		1	FM	Mirzoyan David	2299	68
9	67	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2302	1		1	GM	Maze Sebastien	2608	9
10	69	FM	Tarhon Brian	2299	1		1	GM	Cornette Matthieu	2597	11

Games in PGN

British KO games in PGN