Σκακιστικά νέα

• France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and American Hikaru Nakamura split the honours in a keenly contested Main Line Grunfeld in Game 1 of the London Chess Classic Final, the concluding event of the Grand Chess Tour, which was played at the Olympia Conference Centre.

• The result ratchets up the tension for Game 2, which will be broadcast live from 14:00 UTC on Sunday, as a win would give a lead of 6 points going into the Rapid and Blitz portion of the match on Monday.

• Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave qualify for the London Chess Classic Final, the concluding event of the Grand Chess Tour, after a pulsating day of Rapid and Blitz, beating Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian, respectively.

• Nakamura and MVL both take the lead in the Rapid games, then clinch their places in the Final with blitz victories.

Written by Guy Haworth and Nelson Hernandez
Reading, UK and Maryland, USA

This is the first in a new series of analytical articles on TCEC events. The full text can be read below on this webpage, and at the bottom you will find a link to the full layouted article in pdf format, including the important tables, graphs and images.

TCEC is very grateful to the authors for their kind permission to publish these substantial and scholarly analyses of its events!

• World Championship challenger Fabiano Caruana is held to a draw by Hikaru Nakamura in the first semi-final game of the London Chess Classic, the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour, despite coming close to a decisive kingside attack on multiple occasions.

• The result leaves Caruana still just short of World Champion Magnus Carlsen’s No. 1 spot on the live ratings.

• Levon Aronian presses Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in an endgame but is also held to a draw in 74 moves.

• England top 4 Mickey Adams, David Howell, Gawain Jones and Luke McShane all negotiate their way through a tough quarter-final stage to qualify for the British Knockout Championship semi-finals.

• David Howell triumphs eventually over IM Ravi Haria in a rapid playoff, despite almost coming to grief in the first Classical game.

• Semi-Finals pit Adams vs McShane and Howell vs Jones.

• Gawain Jones becomes the first player in the British KO Quarter-Finals to pull ahead with a smooth victory in Game 1 over IM Alan Merry.

• England No. 1 Mickey Adams is held to a draw by Simon Williams in a sharp Queen’s Gambit.

• David Howell barely escapes defeat at the hands of IM Ravi Haria after disastrously weakening his kingside defences and being forced to give up the exchange.

The 28th Annual North American Open will be held from 26-30 December, 2018, at Bally’s Casino Resort, 3645 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, Nevada.

The event has 7 sections: Open, Under 2300, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500 and Under 1250.

The Open Section is a 5-day tournament (December 26-30) with FIDE norms possible. The Under 2300 to Under 1250 Sections have either a 4-day schedule (December 26-29) or 3-day schedule (December 27-29) to participate in.

Hosted by DeepMind in Google’s UK headquarters in King’s Cross

As part of the 10th London Chess Classic, the Pro-Biz Cup brings leading business minds and the world’s leading Grandmasters together in a fun tournament to raise money for the UK charity Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC). This takes place on Mon 10 December.

Fans eager for more fabulous top-class chess after the World Championship in London need look no further than the London Chess Classic, where the valiant challenger, Fabiano Caruana, will be back in town for a showdown with three of the world’s most exciting players from December 11-17, thanks to support from our new sponsor, The Lohia Foundation.

The European Amateur Chess Championship 2019 will be held in the island of Rhodes, Greece, from 5th-15th April, simultaneously with European Senior Chess Championship 2019.The events will be held in the Conference center of Olympic Palace Hotel, as the official hotel of the Championship.