News
News
One More Return To The London Chess Classic

One More Return To The London Chess Classic

PeterDoggers
| 4 | Chess Event Coverage

The main event of the London Chess Classic finished on Sunday, but there's plenty of reason to return to the UK capital one more time.

On Monday night the traditional prize-giving dinner at Simpson's-in-the-Strand was held, English GM Gawain Jones won a training match against French GM Romain Edouard and the open was won by two young and relatively unknown players.

Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.


Simpson's-in-the-Strand is famous for being an important venue for chess in the 19th century. It still houses a fine restaurant, and each year the participants of the London Chess Classic, other GMs, sponsors, friends and guests are treated with a tournament farewell dinner.

The tables are ready, including access to iPads and chess sets! | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.
But first... a bit of chess with IM Ali Mortazavi, GM Jon Speelman & GM Nigel Short... | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.
...who played more opponents, and had decent kibitzers. | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.
Vishy Anand with the winner's trophy... | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.
...and making the first move at one of the boards. | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.
Mickey Adams creating a full pawn center. | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.
David Howell advises the Barclays table. | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.
Hikaru Nakamura giving advice to his mother Carolyn... | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.
...who is assisted by Luke McShane and Fabiano Caruana as well. | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.
Vladimir Kramnik's turn. | Photo © Ray Morris-Hill.

Monday was also the last playing day for Gawain Jones and Roman Edouard, two GMs who played a training match alongside the London Classic. Their first five games were played on the same stage as the main event, in Olympia's Auditorium.

For the last game they moved to Heathside School in Hampstead, where they played alongside the first round of the Brambles Administration 2200+ Open.

Jones told Chess.com how this match came about: “Brambles Administration donated some money to be used by the English Chess Federation. We had been talking for a while about how our younger players could improve and I've never had experience of playing a match.

We thought it would be really good experience so the idea has been in the pipeline for a while. Romain is a teammate of mine for Guildford in the 4NCL and more or less the same strength (2 pt rating difference) and so it made sense to play him.”

Gawain Jones vs Romain Edouard. Photo © John Saunders.

Jones won the match 4-2, remaining undefeated. Especially the first game was a fascinating battle! Here it is, annotated by GM Dejan Bojkov:


Edouard had good chances to level the score in game two, but in severe time trouble he decided to go for a repetition where he was still close to winning. Games three, four and five ended in draws, and then Jones finished with another win:

Jones-Edouard 2014 | Score

# Name Rtg Perf G01 G02 G03 G04 G05 G06 Pts
1 Jones,G 2661 2779 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 4.0/6
2 Edouard,R 2659 2541 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 2.0/6

The London Classic always includes an open tournament as well. This time it wasn't as strong as in previous years, and eventually two young and relatively unknown players tied for first place: 19-year-old GM Kamil Dragun of Poland and 15-year-old IM Jinshi Bai of China.

They managed to finish ahead of some big names, including top seed Vlad Tkachiev!

They drew their mutual game in the final round after both had scored an undefeated 7.0/8. Let's look at a win from both players.

Bai received a nice gift from Socko in round eight as the Polish GM dropped a piece as early as move 11. The young IM had no mercy:


In round six Dragun defeated GM Aleksandr Lenderman, who started a combination but missed an important little move:


2014 London Chess Classic | Open, Final Standings (Top 20)

Rank Name Score Fed. Rating TPR W-We
1 GM Dragun, Kamil 7.5 POL 2547 2725 +2.01
2 IM Bai, Jinshi 7.5 CHN 2444 2707 +3.05
3 GM Tkachiev, Vladislav 7.0 FRA 2629 2668 +0.49
4 GM Socko, Bartosz 7.0 POL 2617 2653 +0.46
5 GM Lenderman, Aleksandr 7.0 USA 2608 2632 +0.34
6 GM Fier, Alexandr 7.0 BRA 2592 2623 +0.50
7 GM Greenfeld, Alon 7.0 ISR 2536 2618 +1.03
8 IM Stopa, Jacek 7.0 POL 2521 2611 +1.14
9 GM Naroditsky, Daniel 6.5 USA 2620 2549 -0.62
10 IM Hawkins, Jonathan 6.5 ENG 2552 2518 -0.17
11 GM Chirila, Ioan-Cristian 6.5 ROU 2547 2537 +0.12
12 GM Piorun, Kacper 6.5 POL 2517 2478 -0.23
13 GM Vakhidov, Jahongir 6.5 UZB 2502 2471 -0.07
14 GM Gormally, Daniel W 6.5 ENG 2499 2445 -0.22
15 IM Sadzikowski, Daniel 6.5 POL 2492 2499 +0.38
16 GM Arkell, Keith C 6.5 ENG 2489 2541 +0.81
17 IM Dourerassou, Jonathan 6.5 FRA 2469 2509 +0.75
18 IM Fernandez, Daniel Howard 6.5 SIN 2454 2409 -0.10
19 IM Kiik, Kalle 6.5 EST 2372 2423 +0.81
20 IM Bluebaum, Matthias 6.0 GER 2560 2515 -0.33
Full final standings here.


More from PeterDoggers
Isa Kasimi (Igors Rausis) 1961-2024

Isa Kasimi (Igors Rausis) 1961-2024

Neuralink Chip In Brain Helps Paraplegic Person Play Chess

Neuralink Chip In Brain Helps Paraplegic Person Play Chess