2012 London Chess Classic

Game 1 is live, darlings!  You can watch it at many places -- right now I'm watching the action, meaning only Judit Polgar's game with Vlady Baby :) -- at Chessdom.com.  Link. 

Action thus far,  Vlady is White, Judit is Black:

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 c5 3. g3 Nc6 4. Bg2 d6 5. e3 e5 6. Nge2 Be6 7. Nd5 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Nec3 Nb4 10. Nxe7+ Qxe7 11. d3 d5 12. a3 dxc4 13. axb4 cxb4 14. Ne4 Nxe4 15. Bxe4 f5 16. Bg2 Rfd8 17. d4 a5 18. Qe2 e4 19. f3 Bd5 20. fxe4 fxe4 21. Rf5 Qd7 22. Re5 Re8 23. Bh3 Qc6 24. Rxe8+ Qxe8 25. Bd2 Qe7 26. Qh5 *

It's 11:41 a.m. Milwaukee time and I'm working on decorating my Christmas tree, that has been up since Thanksgiving day and slowly, ever so slowy, being decorated, an ornament here, an ormanent there; today I'm wrapping French ribbon and later on, if things go right, I'll be adding the most spectactular feather garland you've ever seen (bought it last year at Paul Michael Company). 

So, back to work on the tree, and I'll check on the game in a few minutes and update :)

12:25 p.m.  Oy -- okay, this was more than a few minutes, but I'm decorating the tree and was engaged in a very delicate act of placing the feather garland!  It turned out fabulously, by the way, which is more than I can say for Judit's first game.  Ach!  SHE LOST.  To Vlady Baby.  Holy Hathor.  What is this world coming to?  Here are the rest of the moves, read 'em and weep:

26. Qh5 Qd8 27. Rf1 g6 28. Qe5 Ra6 29. Bd7 Bf7 30. Rxf7 Kxf7 31. Bb5 Rf6 32. Bxc4+ Kg7 33. Qxe4 Qc7 34. Qd5 Rf8 35. e4 b5 36. Qxb5 Qd6 37. Qb7+ Kh8 38. Qa7 g5 39. Bxg5 Qc6 40. Qe7 1-0

Here's a screen snip of the final position:

In other news, North America's representative, GM Hikaru Nakamura with the black pieces knocked out GM Levon Aronian. Hmm, maybe I kinda like him after all...nah.  Game:

1. c4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. g3 e5 6. Nb5 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 a6 8. N5c3 d5 9. cxd5 Nxd5 10. Bg2 Be6 11. O-O Nb6 12. Be3 Nc4 13. Qc1 O-O 14. Rd1 Qc7 15. a3 Nxe3 16. Qxe3 Ba5 17. Nd2 Bb6 18. Qf3 Rad8 19. Na4 Ba7 20. Qc3 Rd4 21. Qc2 f5 22. e3 Rdd8 23. b4 e4 24. Nb3 Qf7 25. Nbc5 Bd5 26. Rd2 b6 27. Rxd5 Rxd5 28. Nxa6 Ne5 29. Rd1 Rfd8 30. Rxd5 Qxd5 31. Nb2 Qd2 32. Qc7 Ng4 0-1

Final position:

And now, back to my Christmas tree...