The annual London Classic is now underway at Olympia. Understandably Magnus Carlsen, after his exertions in New York, is not competing. Nevertheless, the line-up is extremely powerful, consisting of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Vladimir Kramnik, Lev Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov and our own Michael Adams. This week, a game and puzzle from previous encounters between the contestants. I have published this game before, but fresh computer analysis has revealed some exciting new possibilities.
Anand-Vachier-Lagrave: London Classic, London 2015, Sicilian Defence
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be2 e5 7 Nb3 Be7 8 Be3 Be6 9 Nd5 Nbd7 10 Qd3 0-0 11 c4 b5 12 Nd2 This is somewhat unusual and the natural 12 cxb5 is almost always preferred. 12 … Nc5 13 Bxc5 dxc5 14 b3 Bxd5 15 cxd5 Ne8 Black starts the knight off on a manoeuvre round to d6.
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