Sunday, December 12, 2010

Anand Leads At London Chess Classic 2010

GM Nigel Short, ENG vs GM V Anand, IND 12 December 2010, Kuala Lumpur – At the London Chess Classic 2010, Vishy Anand wins against Nigel Short of England with a checkmate.

At the official website, John Saunders reports that “The tournament has passed the midway point and we now have joint leaders. World champion Vishy Anand celebrated his 41st birthday by defeating backmarker Nigel Short to join Luke McShane (who drew with Mickey Adams) in the lead. It wasn’t quite such a good day for the English players as Friday as David Howell also lost, to Vladimir Kramnik. The last game to finish was Carlsen-Nakamura, which Magnus won after five hours of play.

After emerging from some initial difficulties with his Closed Sicilian opening, Nigel Short seemed to be doing quite well around move 28, when Vishy allowed him to open the g-file and land a rook on the seventh. He worked a knight around to assist in the attack but then had an aberration, sacrificing first a pawn and then a bishop to hack a way through to Vishy’s king. But there was a flaw in his calculation - Vishy had the simple move 38...Qd6! which covered all the mating threats. He was left a piece adrift, so fell on his sword, allowing a mating finish.”

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To watch how the World Champion, Vishy Anand executes his checkmate as black in the fourth round game against Nigel Short, please see the game viewer below.

The following tables indicate the standings of the eight participating chess players in the London Chess Classic 2010 with Anand leading with 8 points, the same as Luke McShane of England.

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* Official website - click here.
* Susan Polgar's Daily News - click here.

* Chessbase.com News – click here.
* fireyrook's blog - click here.

* Top photo by Ray Morris Hill

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