Saturday 19th Dec: Women's Invitational - A Women’s Invitational tournament was held as part of the main congress at the London Chess Classic at Olympia. The tournament was the brainchild of IM Lawrence Cooper, the English Chess Federation’s Director of International Chess and was the first of what he hopes will become a regular series of women’s competitions in England. The dates weren’t ideal for his purposes as a number of prospective players at school and university couldn’t take part but he still put together a very interesting and varied line-up. The top seed and favourite was the highly experienced English IM Susan Lalic is a busy chess teacher. More is revealed in this large illustrated report.

Thursday 17th Dec: FIDE Open - The London Chess Classic was not just about super-grandmasters. The congress was remarkably inclusive and catered for chessplayers of all abilities, from children who had just mastered how the ‘horsey one’ moved, right up to the world rated number one. Ranked immediately below the Classic itself was the London Festival FIDE-Rated Open, a nine-round Swiss tournament which ran from December 8-15 (with rounds four and five both played on Friday 11 December). With a first prize of £2,500, and overall prize fund of £8,250, it attracted a strong field of 125 players. Read John Saunder's illustrated FIDE Open report.

Monday 14th Dec: Round 6 - The penultimate round was full of exciting chess. It featured two decisive games and the number should arguably have been three had things gone Michael Adams’ way. Vladimir Kramnik’s win against Nigel Short took him within one point of Magnus Carlsen which means that these two cannot be caught by anyone else but either of them could still win the tournament. Magnus Carlsen had a narrow escape when he played a strange opening and overreached against Michael Adams. The English super-grandmaster sacrificed a piece for a dangerous counter-offensive. For some time it seemed as if Carlsen would lose and endanger his chances of appearing ... continued in the Round 6 report

Sunday 13th Dec: Round 5 - There were two decisive games in an exciting round at the London Chess Classic today. Magnus Carlsen stretched his lead to three points over Vladimir Kramnik, while Luke McShane won again to move into third place. Before moving onto a blow-by-blow account of round five, let’s clear up a couple of errors from round four. One was in the original issue of the press release, where we tried to tell you that Short-Ni Hua was the round four best game winner. I hope neither of those gentlemen nipped out to spend their 500 euros (each) on Christmas presents on the strength of this comment because it was wrong. See the full story in the the illustrated Round 5 report.

Saturday 12th Dec: Round 4 - All four games played in Round 4 of the London Chess Classic on 12 December 2009 ended in draws. They were all fighting draws which were only concluded after full-blooded battles. Vladimir Kramnik and Michael Adams were the first to finish after the English grandmaster cleverly neutralised the ex-world champion’s pressure and then gave up a pawn to reach a sterile opposite-coloured bishops endgame. In McShane-Howell, everything but pawns disappeared from the board by move 22 but McShane’s slightly positional advantage was not enough to win. Once again a lot of attention focused on Magnus Carlsen’s game ...  Read more in the round 4 report.

Thursday 10th Dec: Round 3 - After Magnus Carlsen’s two wins in the first rounds, it was only a matter of time before the pundits in the press room started speculating on him scoring 7/7 (which sounds even more impressive with the ‘football score’ equivalent, 21/21). But that is not going to happen, thanks to a resolute refusal to be ‘magnified’ by England’s David Howell and (it has to be admitted) one golden opportunity missed by Carlsen. The only three-point scorer was Vladimir Kramnik who thus moves up to within one point of the young Norwegian. This round had two extra dimensions which made it particularly intriguing. One was that it was an ‘England versus the Rest of the World’ match ...  Round 3 report.

Wednesday 9th Dec: Round 2 - After two games played, Magnus Carlsen is already three points clear of the field, on the 3-1-0 scoring system employed here. After the ‘Pearl Spring’ (the tournament in China where Carlsen scored a runaway success) comes the ‘London Winter’. Which means rain, of course, but so far no water has fallen on Magnus Carlsen’s parade. Let’s look at the games in the order in which they finished. All the games were hard-fought and provided good entertainment to another large and appreciative audience. The first players to take their places in the Commentary Room were Nigel Short and David Howell after drawing a 44-move game which started with ... Round 2 report.

Tuesday 8th Dec: Round 1 - The London Chess Classic started with a bang on Monday when Magnus Carlsen beat ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik in the first round. It also featured a marathon game between English grandmasters Luke McShane and Nigel Short which ended in victory for McShane after an eye-watering 163 moves. In front of an impressive 400+ audience, tournament director Malcolm Pein said a few opening words and then introduced the special guest who was to make the honorary first move, British Member of Parliament Dr Evan Harris. He had already played an extremely important role in getting the tournament on the road, explained Malcolm Pein. Round 1 report.

Monday 7th Dec - Today was the day when the much-anticipated London Chess Classic tournament opened its doors to the press. The conference kicked off with an upbeat address from organiser Malcolm Pein. Most of us were already pretty impressed by the line-up and playing arrangements at the Olympia Conference centre – but Malcolm tells us that this year’s tournament – the biggest London has seen for 25 years – is just for starters. He has even bigger and better plans on the horizon, working towards a possible World Chess Championship match in 2012 (the World Chess Federation has already given London its option for the title match, in London’s Olympic year) ... read in full