Such an exciting tournament! I can't wait for tomorrow's games!

Round 8 will be the critical point of the tournament.If Kramnik wins against McShane then only Nakamura can overcome him. If not then it is most probably Nakamura or Carlsen. So the time for betting is now :P

Re: I am sorry! With 3 weaklings, there is no "exciting tournament"!
The obvious solution and still keeping with the concept of the London Chess Classic is to not invite Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Kramnik and Nakamura. If McShane has retired next year there is always Matthew Sadler. The tournament will be perfect with no weaklings.

If you can even consider not calling this an exciting tournament then we're obviously using completely different dictionaries. 2 rounds to go and almost half the field is still able to win the tournament, a high percentage of decisive games, the current tournament leader being the second lowest rated- I'm curious as to how this could be considered anything but exciting.

I think this is a highly exciting tournament, and the scoring system forces the best players to play for a win in all games. It also clearly shows the difference between "strong GMs" and the "best of the best" in the world. Even at such high level the difference is huge between those groups - in all aspects of the game; from opening preparations, middlegame handling and endgame technique. And I think last but not least the attitude to keep playing in difficult positions without losing, that's why Magnus Carlsen is no 1.

Carlsen collects three milk bones from Adams.

The biggest lead Carlsen has had over second place on the Fide rating list is 23 points. Currently he is 26points a head of Aronian. MC is currently up 11 points up on the live rating list, and only 15 points away from beating Kasparovs 2851 record!

HELLO SPONSORS!! New wonderful formula for exciting tournaments: Top players against Weaklings!

After seeing Kramnik analyse his game against Howell, my favourite is clear.

This whole 'weaklings' stuff is so incredibly stupid.

Clearly the London format is designed to give Britain's best players a chance to fight the absolute best, while at the same time enjoying a world class tournament.

And thereby clearly greatly enriching chess culture AND strength in Britain.

It's absolutely marvelous to see the best of the world slug it out with a twofold assignment: beating as many lower rated players and keeping a close eye on each other.

Carlsen is looking just incredible. Maybe Kramnik and particularly McShane show great form.

Magnus is just being himself.

His domination, both in rating and this year's tournaments are simply magnificent.

Having said that, the last two round look favorable for Nakamura and far less so for Carlsen.

Kramnik and McShane have very tough opposition too. I'm not too sure how dangerous Luke has been with white.

One should not blindly trust Kramnik when he says he does not want to calculate variations. He probably says this in a (failed) attempt to lull his opponents.

The stage is set for a strong Nakamura finish and comeback after Tal Memorial, it seems... I've nothing against him, he's a great fighter; still, I will be rooting for Short to trip him up ;)

Did anyone see the comments made by nakamura regarding kasparov? Stated that kasparov did well because of his opening prep, and that other players were better in middle game and endgame. He sounded quite negative about kasparov in general, and didn't even sound keen about doing more training sessions with him. The video is available at CB.

In today's Game, i think Aronian was scared.

Was reading somewhere about Anand:

"Anand is the only player to have won the super tournament at Wijk aan Zee (Corus from 1989-2010) five times. He is the first player to have achieved victories in each of the three big chess supertournaments: Corus/Wijk aan Zee (1989, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2006), Linares (1998, 2007, 2008), Dortmund (1996, 2000, 2004)."

Is all this true? Did this ever happen in past? arrgghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!