London Chess Classic Round 3
Round three of the London Chess Classic pitted the two early leaders Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen against each other. Between them they have also won all the previous editions of this tournament (Carlsen in 2009 and 2010, Kramnik in 2011), so the result of the game was likely to be crucial to the fate of the 2012 Classic.
Vladimir Kramnik had the white pieces and eventually won a pawn after a Symmetrical English opening. However, Magnus proved yet again that he's a tough cookie, surviving Kramnik's best efforts to convert his advantage. A hard-fought game was played down to bare kings on the 62nd move.
First to finish was the game between Mickey Adams and Judit Polgar. Adams avoided a theoretical duel in the Sicilian main lines, and his choice of 3.g3 led to a pleasant opening edge, which he eventually converted to a win.
Lev Aronian's poor form continued, but despite achieving nothing with the white pieces against Vishy Anand he at least managed to get on the scoreboard with a draw.
In the last game to finish Gawain Jones held Hikaru Nakamura to a draw in a B v N ending.
Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen
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Mickey Adams beat Judit Polgar
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Lev Aronian drew with Vishy Anand
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Gawain Jones drew with Hikaru Nakamura
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The standings after 3 rounds (3-1-0 scoring)
| Name | Fed | Elo | Gms | Pts |
| Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2848 | 3 | 7 |
| Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2795 | 3 | 7 |
| Adams, Michael | ENG | 2710 | 2 | 6 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2760 | 3 | 4 |
| Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2775 | 2 | 2 |
| Jones, Gawain C B | ENG | 2644 | 3 | 2 |
| McShane, Luke | ENG | 2713 | 2 | 1 |
| Polgar, Judit | HUN | 2705 | 3 | 1 |
| Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2815 | 3 | 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.
