CHESS Malcolm Pein The full line-up is: Magnus Carlsen (Norway) ranked 1 - 2848. Levon Aronian (Armenia) ranked 2 - 2816. Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) ranked 3 - 2795. Vishy Anand (India) the world champion, ranked 6 - 2775. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) ranked 13 - 2755. Luke McShane (England) ranked 29 - 2713. Michael Adams (England) ranked 32 - 2710. Judit Polgar (Hungary) ranked 43 - 2705. Gawain Jones (England) ranked 112 - 2644. Averaging 2751.22, which makes it the first tournament in the UK to be FIDE Category 21. IM Jonathan Hawkins is playing the London Chess Classic Open. Hawkins has just authored a book which is selling very well, called Amateur to IM, that contains some excellent study material. I suspect he will soon be able to work on another book entitled from IM to GM as he will have a great opportunity to score a GM result. Hawkins warmed up by winning the British Rapidplay at Leeds. J. L. Weller - J. Hawkins British Rapidplay, Leeds Grunfeld Defence Russian System 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 0-0 7.e4 Na6 (The Prins Variation) 8.Be2 c5 9.d5 e6 10.0-0 exd5 11.exd5 Bf5 12.Rd1 Qb6 13.Na4 Qb4 14.Qxb4 Nxb4 15.Nxc5 b6 16.Nd3 Nfxd5 17.Nfe1 Rfe8 18.Kf1 Rac8 19.a3 Nxd3 20.Bxd3 Bg4 21.f3 Be6 22.Be4 X22222222 ?u+t+t+l+5 AEOu+u+oVo5 ?uOu+v+o+5 ?+u+m+u+u5 ?u+u+b+u+5 ?Pu+u+p+u5 ?uPu+u+pP5 ?RuBrNk+u5 ???????? Black to play and win a pawn Answer: 20...Rxc1 23.Rdxc1 (23.Raxc1 Ne3+ 24.Kf2 Nxd1+ 25.Rxd1 Bxb2) 23...Bxb2 24.Nc2? (24.Rab1) 24...Rc8 (The pin is decisive) 25.Kf2 f5 26.Bd3 Rc3 0-1 26...Rc3 27.Be2 (27.Ke2 Nf4+) 27...Bxa1. The 4th London Chess Classic is under way at Olympia. The tournament favourite Magnus Carlsen may just have broken Garry Kasparov's all-time high rating of 2851 as you read these words. Magnus is currently 2848 and so a victory in the first round over Luke McShane ought to get him level and then a second win would break the record.