The London Classic gets underway this weekend in Olympia. The line-up is formidable, including the world champion Magnus Carlsen, his predecessor Viswanathan Anand, and Sergei Karjakin, who challenged Carlsen for the title last year. The remaining contestants are as follows: Lev Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Michael Adams.
Carlsen comes fresh from his triumph in St Louis against the elite Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren. In a mixture of fast-play formats Carlsen triumphed by the overall score of 67-25, winning the match with 13 rounds to spare. Carlsen is of course the hot favourite to win in London, joining those illustrious names who have won major events in the capital including Adolf Anderssen, Emanuel Lasker, José Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine and of course, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. (There is also the enticing possibility that next year’s World Championship match will see Carlsen defending his title in London.)
This week’s game is a win by Carlsen from an earlier London Classic against the reigning British champion.
Carlsen-Jones: London Chess Classic, London 2012; Sicilian Defence
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Qxd4 With this unusual recapture White plans to aim for a Maroczy-style position with an early c4. 4 … a6 5 h3 Nc6 6 Qe3 g6 7 c4 Bg7 White has a central space advantage but Black will aim to create dark-squared counterplay on the queenside. 8 Be2 Nf6 9 Nc3 0-0 10 0-0 Nd7 11 Rb1 White plans to expand with b4 on the queenside. 11 … a5 12 b3 Nc5 13 Bb2 f5 This advance is a standard way to create counterplay for Black in this type of position. However it does run the risk of weakening the kingside. 14 exf5 Bxf5 15 Rbd1 White plans to centralise his forces and eyes the black pawns on the e- and d-files.
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