The annual London Classic, inspired and organised by the indefatigable Malcolm Pein, is now underway at London’s Olympia. The website is www.londonchessclassic.com and in the stellar line-up are Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Veselin Topalov, Alexander Grischuk, Viswanathan Anand, Anish Giri, Lev Aronian, Michael Adams and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
This is the highest-rated tournament ever held on British soil, though Nottingham 1936 can challenge for quality given that five world champions were competing, namely Emanuel Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe and Botvinnik.
London has been the scene of many brilliant games, jewels in the crown of chess art. This week I give two examples of coruscating brilliance.
Anderssen-Kieseritsky: London 1851
(see diagram 1)
18 Bd6!! Bxg1 The only defensive try was 18 … Qxa1+ 19 Ke2 Qb2 20 Kd2 Bxg1 21 e5 with unclear play.
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