There was just one decisive result in the penultimate round: Vladimir Kramnik broke English hearts by beating home player Luke McShane in a long, fluctuating struggle. That put the former world champion two points clear of the field.
He has White in the final round and is not someone who is readily beatable with that colour. And in order for Vlad not to finish first (at least on tie-break), something would have to happen that has never happened before at a classical time control: Levon Aronian would have to beat him with Black in tomorrow’s final round.
Let’s run through a few possible last-round permutations. If Vlad wins, of course he takes the title and the 50,000 Euros first prize. If he draws, and Magnus Carlsen fails to win (he’s Black against Nigel Short), the same applies. If Vlad draws and Magnus wins, then Vlad is first on tie-break ...
Round 8, Sun Dec 11th, 14:00 | ||
Vishy Anand | ½-½ | Magnus Carlsen |
David Howell | ½-½ | Levon Aronian |
Luke McShane | 0-1 | Vladimir Kramnik |
Hikaru Nakamura | ½-½ | Nigel Short |
Michael Adams (bye) - assisting commentary | ||
Standings after round 8
No | Name | Win | Draw | Loss | Score / games | Tie break | Rating | TPR | |
1 | Kramnik | Vladimir | 4 | 3 | 0 | 15.0 / 7 | 2800 | 2963 | |
2 | Carlsen | Magnus | 3 | 4 | 0 | 13.0 / 7 | 2826 | 2902 | |
3 | McShane | Luke J | 3 | 3 | 1 | 12.0 / 7 | 3 black wins | 2671 | 2852 |
4 | Nakamura | Hikaru | 3 | 3 | 1 | 12.0 / 7 | 1 black win | 2758 | 2851 |
5 | Anand | Viswanathan | 1 | 5 | 1 | 8.0 / 7 | black win | 2811 | 2750 |
6 | Aronian | Levon | 1 | 5 | 1 | 8.0 / 7 | white win | 2802 | 2733 |
7 | Short | Nigel D | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5.0 / 7 | 2698 | 2586 | |
8 | Howell | David W L | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4.0 / 8 | 2633 | 2570 | |
9 | Adams | Michael | 0 | 3 | 4 | 3.0 / 7 | 2734 | 2519 |
Round 9 Pairing:
Luke McShane v Vishy Anand; Hikaru Nakamura v Michael Adams; Nigel Short v Magnus Carlsen; Vladimir Kramnik v Levon Aronian; David Howell (bye) - assisting the commentary team.
Source- London chess classic.com
No comments:
Post a Comment