How is the London Classic not classic chess? Check out the proper time controls - much more "classical" then the absurd incremental rubbish FIDE insist on!

Somehow I thought they would play four games instead of just two. Pity to see Shirov go out, a bit of an anti-climax.

@ Arne Moll. Agreed. I've lost all interest in the KO. I'm really looking forward to the London Classic with plenty of e4, Sicilian, and maybe even some Grand Prix games from the English and Nakamura.

I root for Svidler to win the Cup.

As a protest, I'm not going to follow that (for me) miserable chess-variant (or fake-chess) tournament in London. Death to Bilbao and Sofia rules!
(I know, those are even allowed by the new FIDE rules. I'm totally against them!)
(Even if they invited me, I wouldn't play :-) )

What chess variant? Only the scoring system is different thats all. And Sofia rule is actually a good one - for invitational non-championship competitions that is.

Correction: The games were played today - December 1st (i.e. Round 4 Day 2), not on November 30th. The same problem appears to be valid for chessgames.com, which also marked the whole games as November 30th. Or am I missing something?

Yes, tit's that "all" that makes ALL the difference, if you think about it.
Anyway, of course I know (and must respect) that there people disagreing with me on that, otherwise no one would think of organizing such a (for me) sad tournament. Money talks, thats all.
My protest is decided. Not one move of one game I'm following.
Bring back real "classic chess". Shame on the nerve that whoever called that had!

*it's
(not tit's :-) )

Update: The correction has been made pretty quickly.

yea with Shirov gone I don't know who to root for anymore... no one exciting is left.

I think Mamedyarov is a an exciting player!!, and also a very nice guy. He 's very agressive and rarely plays boring games.

shame on Shakhriyar Mamedyarov!
using the another out-board tactics win
shame on FIDE!
trapped Chinese players!

Mamedyarov is certain not "a very nice guy'

Of course one can be unhappy that certain players (one's favorites) were eliminated. But isn't it a bit odd to lose interest in the tournament because the "wrong" players prevailed, or the "wrong" openings are played? Isn't it odd, almost an insult to the remaining players to call them "not exciting"?

@leigh: What do you mean? The forfeit winners were Gashimov and Bacrot. Gashimov is also from Azerbaijan, but his name is not Mamedyarov ... . And the earlier Mamedyarov controversy was about an on-board tactics loss, accompanied and/or followed by unsuccessful off-board tactics.

@Nutos: Indeed. The actual time control is much more important than whether or not they use Sofia rules. The time control changes the quality of the game. I don't see how Sofia rules impact the game, except that we have less 15 move draws.

Sofia rule shouldn't be used in championships, when they play for qualifications and places or titles. If both players are OK with a draw, the they should make one.

Buth in invitational tournaments they are paid to play - thats why they really must play! So Sofia rue is just fine.

Bilbao scoring system...thats another story. Don't really have a real opinion about it yet.

The increment was one of the awsome good things Fischer and others brought to the game. Nowadays, it's just stupid not to have it in any top chess competition.

The Sofia rules doesn't prevent GM draws by it's own. Other factors do.
It is anti-chess because
1st: The draw should be at will of the players, that should be written on paper (on stone). It's chess at it's highly noble nature.
2nd: The draw REMAINS at will of the players, they just have to fake it more, more times, and in more moves. It's chess at it's bottom shameful nature.
Don't fool yourselves! When we get less draws, other factors are really working, NOT that stupid rule.

The Bilbao rule changes the game by 2/3 (3/1 vs 2/1), in every avaliations the players have to do along their games, in a tournament. Not that we all wouldn't like to have less unfought draws, and more combativity, but under Bilbao we get it for an unacceptable price on chess itself. In the limit (as a joke, of course), we could defend chess to become equal to Muay-Tay, if we needed more action regardless of what kind of action.

"Classic"? London? Clash my ash!

"The three youngest players left – the darlings of chess fans – were both eliminated in the tiebreaks in Khanty-Mansiysk. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, lost to Boris Gelfand, 41; Fabiano Caruana, 17, was eliminated by Vugar Gashimov, 23; and Wesley So, 15, lost all three games to Vladimir Malakhov, 29. Jakovenko knocked out Grischuk, and Ponomariov Bacrot."

Sofia rules are necessary. Here's an example: J Benjamin vs Fedorowicz. These NYC GMs and friends have played each other 18 times since 1980. Every game has been a draw. If you think that's a coincidence I have some swampland in Florida...

Necessary my ashes! :-)

In fact, all favorits won (except maybe Grischuk?)
I'm deeply disapointed! :-(
Well, not quite!
Go Boris!

What a comeback for the Soviet Union though ...

Jakovenko
Gelfand
Ponomariov
Malakhov
Karjakin
Svidler
Mamedyarov
Gashimov

@NBC "What a comeback for the Soviet Union though … "

You do know that the USSR does not exist, right?

@Nakamura fan: the USSR does exist in minds of many people who was born there. Although these physicists, programmers, chess players etc. are spread all over the world now they are still carrying a spirit of their motherland, unfairly destroyed - just for destruction. You can do nothing with this, because kids of these guys carry the same.

@vosuram The USSR was a dictatorship where Stalin and others murdered and imprisoned more people than Adolf Hitler. Every former resident I've ever spoken with or read a book by have said it was hell on earth. For example:

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - "Through his writings he made the world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system – particularly The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, his two best-known works. Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970. He was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974. and returned to Russia in 1994."

Dear Nakamura fan, I'm talking about the country where I was born in 1961. No Stalin, the scale of Gulag is unclear, possibly already about zero. No hypocrisy, neither corruption. All chances to grow up since the fundamental science is state-supported, ahead of the rest of the world. As a winner of the All-Russian competition in physics going to a special school. Cannot complain. The ideological "pumping" is going gradually to zero. Solzhenitsyn is openly available although people accept the "Colyma stories" of another author (hey, whom? - Varlamov) as much more precise. All chances for the country to jump over the head, because of a critical mass of "over-educated" people. Instead of attempts to develop the country many of these people are trying to make a success in politics. No chance, old guard leaded at the moment by Gorbatchev, keeps all posts. After an extremely unclear attempt to "take a move back" in 1991 Gorbachev is loosing all positions and Eltsin who was never being sober is coming on the top...

Skipping something: till now I cannot understand why my country doesn't need scientists.

...I think you've got an American education. Sorry, I do not accept slogans, but only facts, numbers, dates, names.

Questions to you, in order to make sure you think independently: 1) what was a reason for the American aggression to Irag (official/real)? How many civilians in Iraq were killed by the US troops?

Cheers

@vosuram "No Stalin, the scale of Gulag is unclear, possibly already about zero. No hypocrisy, neither corruption."

You're so correct. The Holocaust never happened either. After 1960 there were no gulags or corruption. Every Russian who doesn't agree with you is lying about this. Garry Kasparov is not trying to change the government, because he thinks it's perfect. Thank you very much for educating me.