London Chess Classic 2015 - Round 7 Recap

Opening: B92: Sicilian: Najdorf

Player(s): Vachier-Lagrave, Anand

GM Alex Yermolinsky recaps Round 7. All of sudden, the tournament gets set on fire by three decisive games in a round! Paraphrasing a marvelous book written by the great Cormac McCarty, England is no country for old men. MVL, the young French ace, played a spectacular game against Anand, precise and aggressive. The endgame, with 32. ...Rxf2! was a minor masterpiece. Topalov continues to live his personal nightmare in London. Nobody would have imagined that Veselin, who was on top of the Grand Chess Tour standings entering this event, had to play the punching-ball. -4 is almost incredible a score for the strong Bulgarian GM. Today he lost with Aronian, who after 6 draws now is finally at +1. Caruana and Giri drew, as well as Adams and Grischuk. It took almost 7 hours to Magnus Carlsen to win his first game in London, but it was a rollercoaster. Magnus and Hikaru got into an endgame with two knights vs. two bishops. Tons of complications and tactics made playing really hard for both of them. We all know how strong is Magnus when it comes to endgames: he's able to squeeze wins out of thin air, and this is what he did today. Nakamura defended strenuously, but the two bishops and Carlsen's magic prevailed. The standings now see MVL in the sole lead with 4.5/7, followed by a howling pack with Carlsen, Aronian, Giri and Grischuk, half a point behind. Then a trio with 50%: Nakmura, Adams, and Caruana. The "old men" close the list: Anand with 2.5 and Topalov with 1.5. Tomorrow play starts at 9AM EST. Pairings: Giri-Nakamura, Topalov-Carlsen, Grischuk-Aronian, MVL-Adams, Caruana-Anand.

Teacher's library (718) B92 Vachier-Lagrave Anand recap