London Chess Classic

I manged a quick visit to the London Chess Classic this afternoon, and was able to experience the shear size of the event. Apart from the 10 player Classic, the FIDE Open had a field of over 200 players, while the weekend events have attracted another 300 players. Apart from the playing areas, the foyer was filled with analysis boards, and the large commentary room was 80% full.
I didn't stay for too long, but I did get to see one of the playoff games from the British Knockout Championship (another innovative event). Nigel Short was paired with Luke McShane and played a line against the Pirc which he said served him well against Yasser Seirawan about 25 years ago. Once Short played e6 McShane had to find the right defensive moves, but it was on move 12 that McShane played to wrong move. After that Short was always better, and won both the game and the playoff.


Short,Nigel - McShane,Luke [B00]
British Knockout Ch'ship Olympia Conference Centre (9.1), 10.12.2016

2016 Lidums Young Masters - 2 new IM's

The 2016 Lidums Young Masters finished with FM's Ziangyi Liu (SGP) and Li Tian Yeoh (MAS) tieing for first place with 6/9. Not only was this score good enough to win the event, but was also enough for both players to score their final IM norms. Yeoh lead by half a point going into the final round (along with IM Bobby Cheng), but only drew with Patrick Gong (AUS). Cheng lost to IM Kanan Izzat (AZE) to stay on 5.5, and a win by Liu over FM Yi Liu (AUS) enabled him to join Yeoh at the top of the table.

Top seed GM Adrien Demuth tied for third with 5.5 alongside Izzat and Cheng, while early leader IM James Morris defeated IM Andrew Brown to finish on 5/9.

Hughston Parle (AUS) won the Junior Masters event with 7/9, and Gavyn Sanusi-Goh won the Under 1600 event with 8.5/9


Yeoh, Li Tian (2432) - Morris, James (2457)
2016 Lidums Australian Young Masters (Adelaide, South Australia), 08.12.2016

Normal service being resumed

I have touched down in London, but getting back online took me a little longer than I thought. Throwing a little money British Telecoms way seems to have done the trick, and hopefully this will keep me socially connected for the next month or so.
Yesterday was spent settling in to where we (my son and I) are staying for the next week and a half, as well as overcoming the urge to fall asleep at random moments. This problem may persist for the next few days, but hopefully will be conquered by the start of out first chess tournament.
For now it is a bit of sight seeing and exploration. Might drop in to see the early rounds of the London Chess Classic as well, and if I do I'll be sure to report it.

Heading out

Of to England tomorrow morning, spending the usual 36 or so hours going from door to door. I touch down just as the London Chess Classic starts, but as I will still be in recovery mode for a few days, I might not drop in until Sunday or Monday.
In the meantime I squeezed in one last game at Belconnen Chess Club before I left. It was a useful warm up before I go, but both myself and my opponent missed an import nuance on move 40, which would have turned my single tempo win into a single tempo draw.


Pearce,Tim - Press,Shaun [D20]
Swiss Festive Fun, 06.12.2016

2016 Lidums Australian Young Masters

Adelaide is hosting a strong IM event, as well as a couple of junior tournaments for up and coming players.
The Australian Young Masters is being held at Adelaide Uni, and is offering IM norms in the top section. GM Adrien Demuth (FRA) is the top seed, with IM Kanan Izzat, FM Li Tian Yeoh, and FM Ziangyi Liu making up the overseas contingent. However it is IM James Morris (AUS)  who leads the event with 3.5/4. He is being closely followed by FM Liu on 3.0, with IM Bobby Cheng the only other player above 50%. Results for this event are being posted here.
Alongside this event are the Junior Masters, and Junior Masters Under 1600 tournaments. These events have just begun (2 rounds today), so it is too early to predict a winner.

The Grand Tour

Apologies for the somewhat sporadic blogging recently. Apart from work keeping me busy, an upcoming overseas trip is also taking up my time. Starting on Wednesday (7th December), I, accompanied by my son, will be off on a 9 week trip to the UK. Unsurprisingly, there will be a heavy chess component to the trip, with the London Chess Classic, Hastings International, a 4NCL weekend (and weekender), plus Gibraltar Masters all on the schedule. For some events we will be playing, while for a couple of others I will be an arbiter.
I will be blogging on the trip, so hopefully I can provide some on the spot coverage of these events. Given my current form I suspect my rating might take a bit of a hammering, but as most of these events have been on my to-do list for a number of years, I'm pretty sure the loss of ratings points will be worth it.
 

Carlsen wins World Championship after playoffs.

The 2016 World Championship Match ended today with Magnus Carlsen winning the playoffs 3-1 over Sergey Karjakin. The final two games of the playoffs were both won by Carlsen, after Karjakin blundered in time trouble in game 3, and rolling the dice in game 4, got mated with a nice queen sac.
While the final day had plenty of excitement, the match itself was fairly dull. A narrow choice of openings and strategy by both players resulted in fairly risk free chess, with Carlsen trying to convert small advantages, while Karjakin seemed happier to defend. Of course if Carlsen had converted some advantageous endgames earlier in the match Karjakin may have been forced to change his approach to stay afloat, but as it was, this situation only occurred in the very final game.
This is Carlsen's third World Championship win, and his narrowest. The cycle to determine the next challenger starts anew, and while I still hope for a Carlsen v Caruana match, there may be a number of other players trying to change that.