Anand Blunders In London Round 6
The clash between Vishy Anand and Mickey Adams in round 6 of the London Chess Classic looked to be heading for a draw when the world champion committed a huge blunder on the move after the time control.
The audience and commentators held their breath as Adams pondered his reply for around 15 minutes before playing the killing move 41...Qd1 which wins immediately. A terrible slip for the champion, but as usual he was courteous in defeat.
Just before this drama unfolded the first game of the day finished when Magnus Carlsen made it an amazing 5½/6 by beating Judit Polgar in what he described as "probably my best game so far" in the tournament.
That makes Carlsen's live rating 2863.6 Elo. Even if Magnus were to lose both his remaining games to Nakamura and Anand he will still be rated higher than Kasparov's official record of 2851 Elo by the end of the tournament.
Elsewhere, Vladimir Kramnik and Lev Aronian played a very hard fought draw, and Luke McShane scored his first win by beating Gawain Jones.
Magnus Carlsen scored his fifth win in six games
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Vishy Anand made one of the worst blunders of his career
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Vladimir Kramnik's draw put him above Lev Aronian on the live rating list
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Luke McShane scored a win against Gawain Jones to overtake him in the standings
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The standings after 6 rounds (3-1-0 scoring)
| Name | Fed | Elo | Gms | Pts |
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2848 | 6 | 16 |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2795 | 6 | 12 |
| Adams, Michael | ENG | 2710 | 5 | 10 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2760 | 5 | 8 |
| Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2775 | 5 | 6 |
| Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2815 | 5 | 5 |
| McShane, Luke | ENG | 2713 | 5 | 4 |
| Jones, Gawain C B | ENG | 2644 | 6 | 2 |
| Polgar, Judit | HUN | 2705 | 5 | 1 |
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The 2012 London Chess Classic runs from 1-10 December , with one rest day on the 5th December. Games start at 14:00 GMT, except round four (16:00), and the final round (12:00).
The time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves, then 30 minutes to finish. The 'Bilbao' style 3-1-0 scoring system is being used.
In the event of tied scores at the end of the competition, tie breaks are 1) # of wins 2) # of wins with black, 3) head-to-head result. If these mathematical tiebreakers are not enough, then there will be rapid tie-break games and if needed, a final sudden death game.
More information on all the London Chess Classic events is at the official website, including live games and video commentary.
Photos by Ray Morris-Hill. Games via TWIC.
