London Round 2 Thrills And Spills
There was an exciting second round at the London Chess Classic, with two decisive games and a very near miss.
Lev Aronian ruined a promising position in time trouble to lose to Hikaru Nakamura, while Nigel Short played badly, eventually getting a bishop trapped out of play against Vladimir Kramnik to lose with white.
Luke McShane came very close to repeating his feat of beating Magnus Carlsen in the second round of last year's London Classic. McShane was on course to beat the world's #1, but some slight inaccuracies before the second time control was reached cost him the win.
David Howell recovered from his first round loss to draw with Mickey Adams.
Hikaru Nakamura beating the world's #3 ranked player
No, Mr.Short, I expect you to die!
Luke McShane came close to beating Magnus Carlsen for the second year running
"I am not going to lose today. I am not going to lose today". David Howell didn't lose today!
The pairings in round three tomorrow:
| Levon Aronian | v | Nigel Short |
| Magnus Carlsen | v | Hikaru Nakamura |
| Michael Adams | v | Luke McShane |
| Vishy Anand | v | David Howell |
Vladimir Kramnik will have a bye. Games start at 14:00 local time (UTC).
The excellent official website has live commentary on all the action.
The total prize fund is €160,000 (before tax), with the winner receiving €50,000. If there are any ties in the final scores, they will be broken for ranking purposes only (prize money will be shared) in this order:
- Number of games won
- Number of games won with black
- Result of direct encounter
- Rapid tie-breaks and Armageddon game (first place tie only)
The "Sofia" anti-draw rules are in operation, and the 3-1-0 scoring system.
The time control is 40 moves in 2 hours, followed by 20 moves in 1 hour, and then 15 minutes to a finish with a 30 second increment.
All photos courtesy of Ray-Morris Hill at the official website.
