Streets of London

You don't see frolicking beef-eaters that often on the streets of London, but if you wait long enough a red bus may come your way!
In the tournament several players are trying their best but are still having to be patient as they just can't seem to get their first win under their belt. Maybe tomorrow will be their day.
Four hard fought games but no wins today.

No real change in the points table as all four encounters were drawn. At least the public had the chance to see all the games fought out to dead drawn endgames, that shows that the players were at least trying their hardest to win!

Name	Country	Rating	Age	World ranking	Sofia points	Standard points	Elo points change
Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2801	19	2	8	3	+3.4
Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2772	34	5	7	2.5	+0.8
Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2715	22	24	4	2	+0.2
Michael Adams	ENG	2698	38	36	4	2	-0.7
David Howell	ENG	2597	19	202	4	2	+5.8
Luke McShane	ENG	2615	25	158	4	1.5	+0.5
Nigel Short	ENG	2707	44	29	3	1.5	-8.3
Ni Hua	CHN	2665	26	60	3	1.5	-1.7

In the fourth round games on Saturday no one ever looked as if they were winning.

Nakamura obtained a well dug-in position against Carlsen's isolated queen's pawn. Indeed it was the Norwegian on the defensive (with White) for most of the game, but he didn't seem in any real danger.

Adams bailed out very quickly into a pawn-down endgame with rooks and opposite bishops. His judgement and technique were up to the task of holding out. Not very elegant, but effective.

Luke McShane played a popular move order to avoid David Howell's favourite Gruenfeld Defence. This led to Black having damaged pawns, but there wasn't any real way of pressurizing them. Even after all the pieces were exchanged there wasn't any progress to be made.

Nigel Short won a pawn but was immediately on the defensive in the resulting Rook and Knight versus Rook and Bishop endgame. Short's position was so poorly co-ordinated, with his knight being very passive, that he never looked like winning.

Name	Country	Rating	Result	Name	Country	Rating	Opening
Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2801	0.5	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2715	Slav Defence (D17)
Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2772	0.5	Michael Adams	ENG	2698	Queen's Gambit Declined (D37)
Luke McShane	ENG	2615	0.5	David Howell	ENG	2597	English (Anti-Gruenfeld) Opening (A15)
Nigel Short	ENG	2707	0.5	Ni Hua	CHN	2665	French Defence (C11)

Tomorrow's line-up has both of Carlsen and Kramnik playing with the Black pieces.

Name	Country	Rating	versus	Name	Country	Rating
Ni Hua	CHN	2665	vs.	Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2801
David Howell	ENG	2597	vs.	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2772
Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2715	vs.	Luke McShane	ENG	2615
Michael Adams	ENG	2698	vs.	Nigel Short	ENG	2707

For more information go to the official site: Official site for the London Chess Classic.