Wesley wins in London

8th London Chess Classic 2016 London, England Dec. 9-19, 2016

Final Standings

1. Wesley So USA 2794, 6.0/9 2. Fabiano Caruana USA 2823, 5.5/9

3-5. Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2809, Viswanathan Anand IND 2779, Hikaru Nakamura USA 2779, 5.0/9

6. Anish Giri NED 2771, 4.5/9 7-9, Levon Aronian ARM 2785, Maxime Vachier- Lagrave FRA 2804, Michael Adams ENG 2748, 4.0/9

10. Veselin Topalov BUL 2760, 2.0/9

Average Rating 2785 Category 22

Time Control: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves then 60 minutes play-to-finish with a 30 second increment after every move starting move 41.

Wesley So has just won the London Chess Classic 2016, his second superGM tournament in 2016 (Sinquefield Cup was the first). He did this with three wins (Nakamura, Adams and Topalov), six draws and no losses and took home $75,000 for this feat. This, together with the $100,000 for winning the Grand Chess Tour, of which we will have more to say later, caps a very successful 2016 for Wesley.

The Top 10 in the live chess ratings now stand at: 1. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2840 2. Fabiano Caruana USA 2828 3. Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2811 4. Wesley So USA 2808 5. Maxime Vachier- Lagrave FRA 2796

6. Viswanathan Anand IND 2786 7. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2785 8. Hikaru Nakamura USA 2785 9. Levon Aronian ARM 2780 10. Anish Giri NED 2773 Since this is the last big tournament for the year the standings will likely be mirrored when FIDE comes out with its next rating list this 1st of January 2017. Topalov, Veselin (2760) — So, Wesley (2794) [C54] 8th London Chess Classic 2016 London (6.1), 15.12.2016 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 a6

Here is something interesting. GM Rainer Knaak has pointed out that the mistake 5...d5? has been played many times in the tournament circuit, 496 at latest count. Knaak: “Perhaps a lot of folk think that they are obliged to punish White for his rather peaceful play.” 6. exd5 Nxd5 7.Qb3! White has a big edge. Let me prove it to you:

7...Na5?! Knaak: “This shortens the game considerably” 8.Qb5+ 1–0 Tzermiadianos,A (2454)-Zamit,S (2061) Athens 1999]

7...Nf4 8.Bxf4 exf4 9.Bxf7+ Kf8 10.0–0 Qxd3 11.Re1;

7...0–0 8.Bxd5 Na5 9.Qd1 Qxd5 10.b4;

7...Be6 8.Qxb7 Nce7 (8...Kd7 9.Bb5 Nde7 10.Nxe5+ Ke8 11.Nxc6 Frolov, A ( 2139)- Budyakova, G Taganrog 2015 1-0 18) 9.Qb5+. 6.a4 d6 7.Bg5 Ba7

One person whose games you always have to follow is the former FIDE World Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. He is a tireless and creative thinker with excellent fighting qualities. In the 2016 Eurasian Blitz Chess Cup he defeated another FIDE ex-world champion with the plan of queenside castling plus a kingside pawn storm. 7...h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Bg4 10.h3 Bh5 11.Nbd2 Ba7 12.b4 Ne7 13.Qc2 Bg6 14.0–0 Nh5 15.Kh1 Qd7 16.Bh2 g4 17.Nh4 gxh3 18.g3 0– 0– 0 19. Ndf3 Nf6 20. a5 Ng4 21.Bg1 c6 22.d4 Bxe4 23.Qxe4 d5 24.Qe2 dxc4 25.dxe5 Qd3 26.Rfe1 Qxe2 27.Rxe2 Rd3 28.Rc1 Nd5 29.Nf5 Rxf3 0–1 Ponomariov,R (2706)-Kasimdzhanov,R (2703) Almaty 2016. 8.Nbd2 h6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 0–0 11.0–0 Nh7

Moving the knight away from the center like this always provokes White into a central advance. I’d like to give our readers a feel for these positions — in the 2016 Isle of Man Tournament the Dutch GM Jorden Van Foreest dealt Peter Leko a huge blow. 11... Kg7 12.Re1 Nh7 13.d4!? g4 14.Nh4 exd4 15. cxd4 Bxd4 16. Nf1 Bf6 17. Nf5+ Bxf5 18. exf5 h5 19. Bf4 Bg5 20.Ng3 Kh6 21.Bc1! (with the double threat of f5–f6 and h2–h4) 21...Bxc1 22.Rxc1 Ne5 23.Ba2 Nf6 24.Qd2+ Kh7 25.Qg5 Rg8 26.Qh4 Nfd7? (Black was barely hanging on but now he loses) 27. Qxh5+ Kg7 28. f6+! Qxf6 2 9. Rx c 7 Kf8 30. Rxb7 White is a pawn up with a superior position. Van Foreest,J (2615)-Leko,P (2709) Douglas 2016 1-0 54. 12.h3 h5 13.d4

Wesley said that he was surprised when Topalov played this.

13...exd4 14.Nxd4 g4 15.hxg4 hxg4 16. Nxc6 bxc6 17. e5 d5 18.Be2?

Until now Topalov was doing okay but putting the bishop on e2 was incautious. Better was 18.Bd3 when 18...Qg5 is not as dangerous anymore. White’s knight swings into action with 19.Nb3 Qh5 (19...f5 20.exf6 Nxf6) 20.Nd4 Ng5 21.Qd2. 18...Qg5 19.a5?

Topalov’s idea of activating his rook via a4 and swinging it over to the kingside is too slow. Better was 19.Nb3 f5 20.exf6 Nxf6 21.Qd2. 19...f5 <D> POSITION AFTER 19...F5

Wesley So: I didn’t know I was much better already but fortunately Veselin kept shaking his head! 20. exf6 Nxf6 21. Ra4 Rf7 22.Re1

See how bad 18.Be2 was — the bishop has to move again to give his king an escape square.

22... Nh5 23. Bxg4 Nxg3 24. Re8+ Kg7 25. Rxc8 Bxf2+ 26.Kh2 Qe5 27.Kh3 Ne2 0–1

Black’s threat of ...Qg3 mate can only be parried with ruinous loss of material.

Now, let’s talk about the Grand Chess Tour. This tournament circuit was created in 2015 to promote competitive chess by putting together the top 10 players of the world in a single circuit.

The first Grand Chess Tour had three tournaments, Norway Chess (won by Veselin Topalov), Sinquefield Cup (Levon Aronian won this — one curiosity is that Wesley So, playing in his first Grand Chess Tour event, finished last with 3/9) and the London Chess Classic which Magnus Carlsen won. This victory, taken together with his 2nd place finishes in Norway and Sinquefield, ensured the additional title of Grand Chess Tour 2015 Champion for Magnus.

For 2016 the organizers of Norway Chess declined to participate in the Grand Chess Tour but this was offset by the addition of rapid and blitz events in Paris and Leuven, Belgium. The Grand Chess Tour calendar for 2016 was finalized at:

Paris, June 8-12, 2016 (combined rapid & blitz)

Leuven, June 17- 20, 2016 (combined rapid & blitz)

Sinquefield Cup, Aug. 5-15, 2016 (standard chess)

London Chess Classic, Dec. 9-19 (standard chess)

Magnus Carlsen, the reigning world champion, only played in the first two events because of his world title defense against Sergey Karjakin, but the rest of the Top 10 (no. 2 Kramnik, no. 3 Giri, no. 4 Aronian, no. 5 Caruana, no. 6 Nakamura, no. 7 Vachier-Lagrave, no. 8 Anand, no. 9 Topalov and no. 10 Wesley So) were in full attendance. The wild cards, usually nominees of the organizers, were not so bad either: Ding Liren (ranked no. 12), Peter Svidler (ranked no. 17) and Laurent Fressinet (no. 42). That is how strong the Grand Chess Tour is.

Each event has a prize fund of $300,000 (with $75,000 going to the winner) and then the top two players of the entire tour based on their accumulated tour points are given additional prizes of $ 100,000 ( first) and $50,000 (second).

Wesley started the Grand Chess Tour in June with a strong fourth place in Paris behind Nakamura, Carlsen and VachierLagrave. Then, later that month, the Filipino-American GM surprised his fans with an even stronger second in Leuven behind World Champion Magnus Carlsen. I believe these two events were eye- openers and confidence- boosters for him — instead of the one game per day grind of the standard events both Paris and Leuven comprised of nine rapid and 18 blitz games per player over four days. The emphasis is no longer on opening preparation but on just playing the game, and Wesley showed that in this he could fight with the best.

Two months later when Wesley arrived in the Saint Louis Chess Club to play in the third leg, the Sinquefield Cup, he went there no longer just to make a good impression but to contend for top honors. It was there where he scored the biggest win of his career, first place ahead of Aronian, Topalov, Caruana, Anand, Nakamura, VachierLagrave, Ding Liren, Svidler and Anish Giri. This was a remarkable turnaround from his last place in the previous year.

And now, after winning the London Chess Classic, he has capped a very fruitful 2016. Winner of two superGM tournaments, breaking through the 2800 barrier (a feat which only 11 players have achieved previously), now ranked no. 4 in the world, and winner of the Grand Chess Tour, the strongest tournament circuit of the world.

But not only that — across the chessboard he produced what could be the game of the year against no less than Garry Kasparov: So, Wesley — Kasparov, Garry [A41] Ultimate Blitz Challenge St. Louis (10.2), 29.04.2016 1.Nf3 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Bg4 5.Be2 Nc6 6.Nbd2 e5 [6...Nxd4?? loses a piece after 7.Nxd4 Bxe2 8.Nxe2]

7. d5 Nce7 8. h3 Bd7 9. c5! dxc5 10. Nc4 f6 11. d6!? Nc8 12.Be3 b6 13.0–0 Bc6 14.dxc7 Qxc7 15.b4! cxb4 16.Rc1 Nge7 17.Qb3

Wesley is threatening 18.Ncxe5 fxe5 19.Ng5, which explains Black’s next move.

17...h6 18.Rfd1 b5 19.Ncxe5! fxe5 20.Bxb5 Rb8 21.Ba4 Qb7 22.Rxc6 Nxc6 23.Qe6+ N8e7 [ 23... Kf8 24. Rd8+! Nxd8 25.Qe8#]

24.Bc5 Rc8 25.Bxe7 1–0

Mate is unstoppable. For instance, 25... Qxe7 26. Qxc8+ Kf7 27.Bb3+ Kf6 28.Qxc6+ Qe6 29.Qxe6#

Just shortly before the last round of London Garry Kasparov called him, together with Fabiano Caruana, the main contender to claim the crown from Magnus Carlsen.

Vladimir Kramnik had even something nicer to say: “He ( Wesley So) improved enormously this year. He was already for a while a top player but this year he’s playing maybe the best chess... in the world in fact. I feel that he is going to be a very serious challenger for Magnus [Carlsen] in the years to come. He’s really strong now.”

Yes, we are looking forward to a very interesting 2017.