Results: Round 4 – Saturday 12th December
On the way to the Olympia Centre – where the London Chess Classic is being held
Black bird in a tree
Hammersmith-area – traffic and weather
The players…
Kramnik looked away shyly when I winked at him [hehe] and Nigel suddenly said to Michael Adams…you know what, she’s the only woman around here![NOT – there were many others]
aha! got him smiling!
The stage
And everyone wants the best shot
And I got mine too
Kramnik watching the electronic board
The electronic board, we were allowed to click-click only the first 5 min into the games
A Semi-giant set in the foyer – a lovely set
Art in the foyer, do I see a pawn’s head in this piece of art – or is it my chess-brain working overtime?[hehe]
bikes outside
Headless London pawns lined-up – standing vigilant – for McShane’s and Howell’s game?
Into the night
My impression/opinion of the London Chess Classic
It was great to see these GM’s in real life, they are all great people and great players. It was great to see them playing live on the stage, to see how they respond and their reactions during a tournament. I was very excited to see them as Kramnik is one of my favourite players. Carlsen too, as he’s young and many students can associate with him and he can be of an inspiration to many young players wanting to reach their goal of becoming a GM too?
The venue was great, it wasn’t my first time at the Olympia. If I can have a moan about a few things and maybe, just maybe someone will pick it up and do something about it. Firstly, the Ladies’ toilet near the auditorium was changed into a Gents room. The nearest Ladies was in the East Hall in a maze of corridors with doors enough to take 6mil people to heaven at any one time. I waited for an old lady as I knew she wasn’t going to find her way back. She was already stressed out when she saw me, saying she found it hard to find it – despite the little arrows you could follow. Secondly, the T-shirts were all in sizes Large -and up and then in a small, but no medium-sized-shirts. I was told by Philippa – the wife of Malcolm Pein [organiser of the tournament] – she’s an ex Saffa and spoke to me in Afrikaans, how nice! – that these shirts were not available in a medium-size- as they reasoned that females were not really going to buy it – duh! Was I going to be the only female wanting a shirt? Then I must be of a very rare specie! I did buy a large though, a mug and a pen. I think I will sleep in this large, baggy shirt.[lol]
The games. The chess games were great – sort of. I was very annoyed with Howell and McShane’s game. They didn’t have a good game, it was a boring game, right from the start. Later on I didn’t even follow their game on the board. Magnus played a good game up to a point and I lost interest. Kramnik’s game wasn’t up to the standard I expected from him and I didn’t follow his game – they finished first and quite early too. I was still thinking how to go about to get some autographs when Kramnik disappeared from the stage. One guy was lucky, he was near the exit on Kramnik’s side. You would think they would go to the foyer to mingle with the common chess players and where you can grab them for an autograph. I lost interest in all the games that were left and we left about 6pm. Our parking ticket was £25, all worth it, but will I do it again to see my favourite players in action? I don’t know, maybe. Maybe if us women don’t have to walk two miles for a ladies room, the chess games worth it and t-shirts in medium size [lol] [I must add, the first time I did use the toilet for disabled people, but I was given the look when I wanted to use it again]
On this photo I’m sitting on the right at the far end – you can’t see me! but you can see hubby on the left. The photo is from the official site. We played three games. We arrived at about 12:15-ish and played till about 13:40.
Denise Frick – South African-player taking part in the Women’s Invitational – image: Official site
Plippa – at the bookstall – image: Official site
The games
[Event “London Chess Classic”]
[Site “London ENG”]
[Date “2009.12.12”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Carlsen, Magnus “]
[Black “Nakamura, Hikaru “]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ChessCat “CHESSCAT 1.0”]
[ECO “D17”]
[Opening “QGD Slav”]
[PlyCount “90”]
[Variation “Czech defence”]
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Nh4 Bc8 7.e3 e5 8.Bxc4 exd4 9.exd4 Be7 10.O-O O-O 11.Re1 Nd5 12.Nf3 Be6 13.Qb3 Na6 14.Bd2 Nab4 15.Ne4 Bf5 16.Ne5 a5 17.Nc5 Bxc5 18.dxc5 Qc7 19.Bxb4 Nxb4 20.Qf3 Be6 21.Bxe6 fxe6 22.Qb3 Qe7 23.Nf3 Nd5 24.Rac1 Rf4 25.Ne5 Raf8 26.Nd3 Rd4 27.Rc4 Rxc4 28.Qxc4 Qf6 29.g3 Rd8 30.Kg2 Qf5 31.Nc1 Rf8 32.Qe2 Nc7 33.Nd3 Rd8 34.Ne5 Rd5 35.Kg1 Rxc5 36.Nc4 Qf8 37.Rd1 Rd5 38.Rxd5 exd5 39.Qe5 dxc4 40.Qxc7 Qb4 41.Qc8+ Kf7 42.Qf5+ Ke7 43.Qe5+ Kf7 44.Qf5+ Ke7 45.Qe5+ Kf7
1/2-1/2
[Event “London Chess Classic”]
[Site “London ENG”]
[Date “2009.12.12”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Kramnik, Vladimir “]
[Black “Adams, Michael”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ChessCat “CHESSCAT 1.0”]
[ECO “D37”]
[Opening “QGD”]
[PlyCount “92”]
[Variation “classical variation (5.Bf4)”]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 O-O 6.e3 Nbd7 7.a3 c5 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.Nxd5 exd5 10.dxc5 Nxc5 11.Be5 Bg4 12.Be2 Ne6 13.h3 Bxf3 14.Bxf3 d4 15.Bxd4 Nxd4 16.Qxd4 Qxd4 17.exd4 Rac8 18.O-O Rc7 19.Rad1 Rd8 20.Rfe1 Kf8 21.Re2 g6 22.g3 Bf6 23.d5 Be7 24.Kg2 Bd6 25.Rde1 Rc5 26.Be4 Rdc8 27.f4 Rc1 28.Kf3 Rxe1 29.Rxe1 Rc5 30.g4 a5 31.a4 Rc4 32.b3 Rc3+ 33.Re3 Rxe3+ 34.Kxe3 h6 35.f5 gxf5 36.Bxf5 Ke7 37.h4 f6 38.Bc8 b6 39.Ke4 Bg3 40.h5 Bh4 41.Kf5 Bg5 42.Kg6 Kd6 43.Be6 Ke7 44.Bc8 Kd6 45.Be6 Ke7 46.Bc8 Kd6
1/2-1/2
[Event “London Chess Classic”]
[Site “London ENG”]
[Date “2009.12.12”]
[Round “4”]
[White “Short, Nigel”]
[Black “Ni Hua “]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ChessCat “CHESSCAT 1.0”]
[ECO “C11”]
[Opening “French”]
[PlyCount “127”]
[Variation “Burn variation”]
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Nbd7 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.c3 h6 8.Bh4 c5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Qf3 cxd4 11.Bb5+ Ke7 12.Ne2 Qd5 13.Qxd5 exd5 14.Nxd4 f5 15.O-O-O Kf6 16.Ne2 Be6 17.Nf4 Rd8 18.Bc4 d4 19.Bxe6 fxe6 20.Rxd4 Bc5 21.Rxd8 Rxd8 22.Nh3 h5 23.Re1 e5 24.Re2 e4 25.Kc2 h4 26.f3 Re8 27.fxe4 fxe4 28.b4 Bd6 29.Rf2+ Ke5 30.Ng1 Rg8 31.g3 hxg3 32.hxg3 Rxg3 33.Ne2 Rf3 34.Rg2 Kd5 35.Nd4 Rh3 36.Nb5 Be5 37.Rd2+ Ke6 38.Nd4+ Bxd4 39.Rxd4 Rh2+ 40.Kb3 Re2 41.a4 e3 42.Kc4 Ra2 43.a5 e2 44.Re4+ Kd6 45.Kd3 b6 46.axb6 axb6 47.Rxe2 Rxe2 48.Kxe2 b5 49.Kd2 Ke6 50.Kd1 Kd5 51.Kc2 Kd6 52.Kd2 Ke6 53.Ke3 Ke5 54.Kd3 Kd5 55.c4+ bxc4+ 56.Kc3 Kc6 57.Kxc4 Kb6 58.b5 Kb7 59.Kc5 Kc7 60.b6+ Kb7 61.Kb5 Kb8 62.Kc6 Kc8 63.b7+ Kb8 64.Kb6
1/2-1/2
[Event “London Chess Classic”]
[Site “London ENG”]
[Date “2009.12.12”]
[Round “4”]
[White “McShane, Luke “]
[Black “Howell, David “]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ChessCat “CHESSCAT 1.0”]
[ECO “A15”]
[Opening “English opening”]
[PlyCount “79”]
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.Ne5 Qd6 7.Nxc6 Qxc6 8.Qxc6+ bxc6 9.g3 Bg7 10.Bg2 Rb8 11.b3 O-O 12.Bb2 Nxc3 13.Bxc3 Bxc3 14.dxc3 c5 15.O-O-O Rb6 16.c4 Rd6 17.Rd5 Bb7 18.Rxd6 Bxg2 19.Rdd1 Bxh1 20.Rxh1 Rd8 21.Rd1 Rxd1+ 22.Kxd1 Kf8 23.Kd2 Ke8 24.Ke3 Kd7 25.g4 f6 26.Ke4 Ke6 27.h3 f5+ 28.Kf4 Kf6 29.g5+ Ke6 30.e4 fxe4 31.Kxe4 Kd6 32.f4 e6 33.h4 a6 34.a3 a5 35.Kf3 e5 36.Ke4 exf4 37.Kxf4 Ke6 38.Ke4 Kd6 39.Kf4 Ke6 40.Ke4
1/2-1/2
Chessalee 
