London 01: Anand held to a draw

A report from the London Chess Classic and FIDE Open by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

The London Chess Classic is a cornucopia of events held at one single place. The elite tournament, the British Knockout and the FIDE Open are all taking place at the same venue. It’s every chess lover’s paradise. In the elite section, Anish Giri tricked Veselin Topalov to score the lone victory of the day.

As I and Amruta stepped out of the public bus which stopped near the Olympia Center in Kensington, London we noticed Magnus Carlsen walking down the pavement towards the tournament hall. With father Henrik Carlsen at the front, Magnus walked swiftly as he discussed some of his opening ideas with Peter Heine Nielsen. As they reached the Olympia, and his team entered the elevator, Nakamura and his girlfriend Mariagrazia de Rosa announced their presence in the lobby.

The security guards wanted to check our bags, and we couldn’t join these elite players as the doors of the elevator closed ahead of us. We quickly took the stairs so as to save time and when we reached the third floor, where the entire chess festival of the seventh London Chess Classic is being held, it was a sight to behold.

Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand have locked horns in the previous two World Championship matches. A game between them is always interesting to see. They will be playing each other in the third round in this event.

While Magnus's game with Vachier Lagrave was an uneventful draw, things were more exciting in Nakamura's game against Grischuk, where Nakamura played some excellent chess with the black pieces in a Berlin Defence to put pressure on the Russian. Grischuk, however, managed to hold fort and draw. Nothing drastic happened in the 6.d3 Ruy Lopez game between Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian. The players agreed to a truce in 51 moves. The moment of the day was certainly when Giri tricked Topalov into a stunning tactical quicksand. You can read the complete report on the Classic in our international news service.

In toto, there are eight Indians playing in this chess festival including Indian ace Viswanathan Anand.

Jennifer Shahade asked Vishy Anand on how confident he felt about winning the Grand Chess Tour. “My first aim is to play a good tournament and win the London Chess Classic and then think about the Grand Chess Tour”, was Vishy’s reply.

Anand’s hometown Chennai is in turmoil with incessant rainfall which have caused the flooding of many areas in the city. In a matter of a week, many people have turned homeless, while houses are left without electricity and drinking water. Many of the flights from the Chennai airport were cancelled, but Vishy managed to make it to London without too many difficulties just in time.

We asked Vishy about Chennai and the five-time World Champion sends strength and wishes to the people of his city.

ChessBase India will soon bring you a detailed report on the Chennai fiasco and what it means to the chessplayers residing in the game's epicentre.

FIDE Open

Along with the elite event and the British knockout championships, another strong event takes place at the Olympia Centre in London – the London Chess Classic FIDE Open. 216 players from all around the world have come to participate in this event, which has a rating average of 2125. 27 grandmasters are taking part in the tournament and six of them are rated above 2600.

Schedule for Round 02 (7.30 PM IST) at the Classic: