2012 London Chess Classic 2012: Vishy Anand Escapes Hikaru Nakamura

LONDON: World champion Viswanathan Anand played out an exciting draw with Hikaru Nakamura of the United States in the eighth and penultimate round of the London Chess Classic, on Monday. After a steady draw with Judit Polgar of Hungary in the previous round, it was a nerve-wracking game in which fortunes fluctuated many a times and the draw was probably a good result from a sporting point of view as both Anand and Nakamura missed many opportunities.

On a day when tournament leader Magnus Carlsen of Norway had a bye, Russian Vladimir Kramnik capitalised on his opportunities and crushed Gawain Jones of England. In other games, English Michael Adams of England could not use his extra pawn to full use and split the point with Levon Aronian of Armenia, while Polgar scored her first victory at the expense of Luke McShane of England.

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2012 London Chess Classic Round 7: Anand Draws with Polgar

LONDON: World champion Viswanathan Anandplayed out a draw with Judit Polgar of Hungary to go out of contention in the London Chess Classic, now in progress. Having lost a game through a blunder in the previous round, Anand was apparently satisfied with the result as Polgar also played it safe after showing early aggression. For the first time in the tournament, all the four games were drawn leaving Norwegian Magnus Carlsen with a huge five points lead over Russian Vladimir Kramnik. Carlsen drew with American Hikaru Nakamura after an exciting game to take his tally to 17 points in the soccer-like scoring system in place here. The world number one has just one game left, against Anand, and in all likelihood, he is going to emerge as the winner.

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2012 London Chess Classic Round 6: Anand Blunders against Adams

World Champion Viswanathan Anand fell prey to an inexplicable blunder in a perfectly balanced position and went down to Michael Adams of England in the sixth round of London Chess Classic at the Olympia in London.  After a fine victory in the previous round against Gawain Jones of England, the Indian ace survived some anxious moments in the middle game before equalising completely and just when the experts had given up declaring the game a 'sure-draw', Anand lost track, and lost in no time.

Magnus Carlsen of Norway stretched his lead to three points by defeating highest ranked woman Judit Polgar of Hungary. Under the soccer-like scoring system, Carlsen took his tally to a whopping 16 points out of a possible eighteen, and the world number one is sitting pretty with just two games to come for him.

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2012 London Chess Classic Round 5: Anand Beats Jones; Carlsen Leads

World champion Viswanathan Anand ended the winless draught by defeating Grandmaster Gawain Jones of England in the fifth round of London Chess Classic. Under pressure to score a victory, Anand outclassed Jones and finally recorded a win after 17 Classical Chess games. Magnus Carlsen of Norway continued with his top form to beat Michael Adams of England. Vladimir Kramnik accounted for Luke Mcshane to complete the English rout in the fifth round while American Hikaru Nakamura coasted to a win against the world’s best woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary.

The victory took Carlsen to an astonishing thirteen points from four games in the soccer-like scoring system in place here. Kramnik remains on the toes of the leader with eleven points in his kitty and the rest of the field is now far behind.

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Cool Video: Chess Queen Kosteniuk was at the Peace and Sport Sochi Forum

This week an 8-minute video interview by Peace and Sport was published, with Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk, a Champion for Peace (see Press Release) in the organization Peace and Sport supported by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, speaking of her love of chess and how chess and sport can promote peace in the world. Alexandra was at the 2012 Sochi Forum, together with other great champions, such as Elena Isinbayeva. Here is the nice video interview. 

Read more at ChessQueen.com!

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2012 London Chess Classic Round 4: Anand Holds Kramnik to Draw; Carlsen Leads

World Champion Viswanathan Anand's hunt for an elusive victory continued as he was held by the former challenger Vladimir Kramnik of Russia for a draw in the fourth round of London Chess Classic on Tuesday. Wednesday was a rest day. The fifth round resumes on Thursday with the following pairings:

Vladimir Kramnik - Luke McShane
Gawain Jones - Vishy Anand
Mickey Adams - Magnus Carlsen
Judit Polgar - Hikaru Nakamura

Earlier, on Tuesday, another draw statistically meant that Anand hasn't won for 17 classical games in a row, including four matches in the last World Championship, the Final Masters tournament where he finished winless and three games in the Classic here.

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2012 London Chess Classic Round 3: Anand Allows Aronian to Escape with Draw

World Champion Viswanathan Anand and Dr J Bhagwati, High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom. More great photos by talented photographer Ray Morris-Hill at his website.

World Champion Viswanathan Anand failed to capitalise on chances that came his way and played out a draw with tail-ender Levon Aronian of Armenia in the third round of the London Chess Classic on Tuesday. Hunting for his first victory in a Classical Chess game since the last World Championship in May earlier this year, Anand got a better position with an extra pawn against Aronian but his opponent fought valiantly to split the points in the end.

World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway played out a draw with co-leader Vladimir Kramnik of Russia while Michael Adams coasted to his second victory in as many games at the expense of top woman player Judit Polgar of Hungary.

In the other game of the day, debutant Englishman Gawain Jones shared the point with Hikaru Nakamura of United States.

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