Kramnik and Ni Hua win in round 6 London
Attention: last round, and our live commentary, starts at 13:00 CET today!Again Vladimir Kramnik is just one point behind Magnus Carlsen in the standings of the London Chess Classic after beating Nigel Short today. Carlsen himself escaped with a draw against Adams, and kept the lead with 12 points out of 6 games. Luke McShane had a good position against Ni Hua but misplayed it terribly and even lost.The London Chess Classic takes place December 8th till 15th in Kensington, Londen. Venue is the Auditorium of the Olympiad Conference Centre. The time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves and then 15 minutes plus 30 seconds increment to finish the games. Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Nigel Short, Michael Adams, Ni Hua, Luke McShane and David Howell play.Round 6 by John Saunders
The penultimate round was full of exciting chess. It featured two decisive games and the number should arguably have been three had things gone Michael Adams’ way. Vladimir Kramnik’s win against Nigel Short took him within one point of Magnus Carlsen which means that these two cannot be caught by anyone else but either of them could still win the tournament. Magnus Carlsen had a narrow escape when he played a strange opening and overreached against Michael Adams. The English super-grandmaster sacrificed a piece for a dangerous counter-offensive. For some time it seemed as if Carlsen would lose and endanger his chances of appearing at the top of the January 2010 FIDE Rating List (he needs at least two draws or one win from the last two games to be sure of this). But Michael hesitated, repeated the position a couple of times and ultimately missed a chance of finishing the game quickly. He still emerged with a strong position but Carlsen managed to hold the draw, ensuring that he would stay top of the table going into the last round.Games with notes by John Saunders
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Vladimir Kramnik beats Nigel Short using a strong novelty
David Howell and Hikaru Nakamura drew in round 6
A good start but a bad finish for Luke McShane against Ni Hua
A narrow escape for Magnus Carlsen against Michael Adams
According to several sources Carlsen already secured his no. 1 spot on the next FIDE rating list because even when he'd lose in round 7 he'd end up with the same rating as Topalov and he'd take the spot based on the number of games played
You can still replay IM Merijn van Delft's live commentary of the 6th round in London and the tiebreak of the World Cup final between Gelfand and Ponomariov. We're covering the World Cup and the London Chess Classic for free; starting from 2010 our live commentary will be subscription-based. You'll find more info here.Videos
London Chess Classic 2009 | Pairings & results
London Chess Classic 2009 | Standings ('football system')
London Chess Classic 2009 | Standings (regular system)
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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