Live From Olympia....

The Chess Classic resumes today following Friday's rest day.

Carlsen has his third White of the event and will be hoping to continue his early tournament initiative. His opponent, Nakamura, has drawn all three of his games so far.

Kramnik will be hoping Carlsen will be kept away from another three points. Kramnik himself will have a tough job trying to break down Adams, despite the White pieces, but the tournament situation really demands that he pushes hard.

There's another all-England clash today - McShane v Howell. Both have incredible determination and a strong will to win so I am not expecting a colourless draw.

Short faces Ni Hua in the battle of the two lowest placed players and both will be hoping to get back into the pack.

Meanwhile, the FIDE Open and Women's Invitational tournaments both advanced significantly thanks to double-rounders yesterday.

In the latter event, Arianne Caoili recovered from her earlier loss to Susan Lalic and two more wins have moved her into clear first position with 4/5.

Susan still has a game in hand and is one point behind, sharing second spot with Arlette van Weersel, Elena Winkelmann and Maria Ikonomopoulou.

The pairings for round 6 reveal it to be a critical round, with the four players sharing second place meeting each other.

(4) Arianne Caoili v Camille De Seroux (1.5)
(3) Susan Lalic v Arlette van Weersel (3)
(3) Elena Winklemann v Maria Ikonomopoulou (3)
(2) Maria Yurenok v Denise Frick (2)
(0.5) Olivia Smith v Sabrina Chevannes (2)

The full set of round-by-round pairings, together with a gallery, can found here:

http://www.londonchessclassic.com/festival_events/womens_invitational.htm

Three players share the top spot in the FIDE Open. 'Swiss' fiend GM Mark Hebden plays GM Simon Williams in one crunch round 6 encounter. GM Jon Ludvig Hammer is the third player on 4.5/5 and today he plays Black against IM Stefan Loeffler. Then latter is one of a big bunch of strong players on 4/5.

There's a gallery featuring photos of some of the players here:

http://www.londonchessclassic.com/pictures/fide_open.htm

The games of the FIDE Open and Women's Invitational events are available to view and download here:

http://www.londonchessclassic.com/downloads.htm

If all of that wasn't enough chess for one festival, then today also sees the start of the Weekend Classic and the English Junior Rapid Chess Championship.

Olympia is full of chess!