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Hi Malcolm,
First of all I want to wish you a
Merry christmas and a Happy New Year!
The London Chess Classic was amazing.
Thanks a lot that I could be there! Due to the commitment of
you and your team the whole event was a great success. I
hope that we'll see the 2nd edition in 2010!
All the best, Pascal
Dear IM Pein,
I attended the London Chess Classic
and played in the weekend tournament. What a marvellous
event! Congratulations. The top players' games were
entertaining and hard fought - the 3 points for a win system
encourages and rewards bravery. The commentaries were good
and the playing conditions for the amateurs were first rate.
The lighting and temperature (often a bugbear at weekenders)
were fine and the whole atmosphere was a celebration of the
unifying power of the game we all love so much.
One minor point. GM Hodgson has a most
engaging and charming manner, combined with a wonderful
understanding of the game (he should have - 4 times British
Champion!). It is a shame that his tremendous commentating
skills were solely reserved for the VIPs. It remains only to
say thank you for all the hard work that you and your team
put into the event, thank you to the sponsor and please do
it again in 2010.
DM
Dear Adam
I wanted to let you know how much my
daughter and I enjoyed this brilliantly organised event. The
best in 25 years! It would be great to continue the chess
revival in the UK with similar tournaments in the years
ahead.
Best wishes, Matthew
Malcolm,
Congratulations on organising such a
splendid tournament and providing the opportunity for
British chess players to see top home and International
players in the UK. I can say that I was there during Luke
McShane's victory over Hikaru Nakamura. It was fascinating
to see how, in the commentary room, even the grand masters
were finding it difficult to work out what was coming next.
Many thanks again for a well organised tournament. Regards,
Frank Fallon
I attended the event on the Monday and felt compelled
to E mail you.
I wanted to play in the Open but due
to work was unable to play and had to settle for a day
watching instead. Can i just say what a fantastic event well
organised great venue great value and the biggest influence
on British chess I have witnessed in my many years in the
game. I have read your comments with interest with regards
future events and i wish you every success.
This was truly a great event and so
many rank and file chess players took great pleasure in what
you achieved. I had a fantastic day watching and it was
amazing to see the best British players under one roof vs
the worlds elite
Thanks and Best Wishes, MJ, Josse Chess Player
Dear Malcolm
Congratulations to you and all the
team on a fantastic event. A real credit to chess - a shame
you are not running the BCF. This has got to be the
"Wimbledon of chess".
What can be done to secure its annual holding?
I could write to the government with
some statistics such as; - it costs about £25,000 per annum
to house prison inmates and the number of chessplayers if it
weren't for chess.... . so that's at least 10 years funding
secured! ok maybe not! LOL
Well done, MG, Richmond Juniors
Dear Malcolm,
It’s been a pleasure to follow London
Chess Classic through your website. All the details and
extra effort you put in the layout, graphics and daily
reports has turned LCC into a class act. Among the very best
coverage’s I have ever seen. And, for once, to read reports
written in native English. Your compassion for the game and
the players shines through. Informative and witty, your
daily reports made for highly entertaining read.
I’m looking forward to next year
tournament, already. If possible, you might consider adding
web-cams from the playing venue. Chess doesn’t have enough
public appeal to attract the commercial TV-stations. But TV
itself are about to be overhauled by internet and Chess is
perfect for internet. Web-cams from the games add a lot to
the viewing experience.
Best regards, PD (Norwegian Chess-fan)
Malcolm,
Just a quick note to congratulate you
on a magnificent job. This event will go down in history as
a great one, especially given the winner and his probable
place as Word Champion.
Well done, and happy holidays!
JW
Dear Malcolm,
I wanted to send you a note following
my visit to Olympia, but decided to wait a bit until things
had quietened down for you. I have been playing/watching
chess in the UK for 60 years and can say this was the best
event I have attended for overall chess atmosphere- not just
the Classic, good as it was, but all the other activities,
tournaments, juniors, schools, demos etc created a vibrant
chess environment I have not experienced elsewhere.
Congratulations! And I believe you are planning to repeat
the Classic next year and are aiming for the World
Championship. I wish you every success!
Best wishes, Ray
Malcolm,
Congratulations on staging the London
Chess Classic. I was only able to attend in person today,
but it was a fascinating day out, and looked to be very well
organised. A big vote of approval too for the Sophia rules
(if that’s the right term). No bore draws, and every game
hard fought with the result of the tournament going down to
the last few moves of the last game. Couldn’t have been
better.
I hope you can be persuaded to do the
same again next year!
John
Dear Malcolm,
I had hoped to speak to you at
Olympia, but your were always busy!
I would jut like to say how much I
enjoyed the Chess Classic! A £40 season ticket for four
hard-fought games a day for seven days was a bargain! The
tournament was very well organised and was a resounding
success! It was great to see so many small children showing
an interest in chess and playing with the outsize chess
pieces, though some were not much bigger than the pieces and
could hardly pick them up!
The players all seemed very amenable
and didn't mind signing autographs and being photographed.
The venue was ideal for me, as my coach to London stops
right outside Olympia.
It was also good to attend a big
tournament in London that Ray Keene hadn't organised, though
no doubt his tournament book will be out by the time you get
this!
I am delighted to hear that there will
be another tournament next year and am looking forward to
it. I don't know who the main sponsor was, but he must have
deep pockets! Presumably he wanted no publicity.
Once again, many thanks to all who
were involved in the organisation of the tournament, which
will hopefully become a regular fixture in the chess
calendar.
GN
Dear Mr Pein,
I attended the London Chess Classic on Sunday 13th
December and am writing to congratulate you and your team on
a great event. I came to chess less than a year ago, aged
34, and this is the first tournament I have been to. I
commend you on your worthy ambition to popularise the game,
especially to children. However, I can also see that
something of an image problem exists. In a country that
often disparages intellectual endeavour in popular culture,
a fresh look at chess would be great. The image of the badly
dressed, socially inept, aged eccentric may be endearing in
a way but doesn't do chess any favours. That's why I was so
pleased to find (amongst the stereotypes) the sparkly
enthusiastic and evern geezer-ish commentary team in
banter-action. This was the highlight of the day for me and
I spent many hours enjoying the verbal jousting of ideas in
the commentary room and in the foyer. In fact, I think this
had TV appeal - chess TV via youtube one day possibly?
Best wishes for the new charity. I think a few
endorsements by "cool" celebrities with pictures of them
playing chess would go a long way in impressing your
potential players: Chessfactor not x-factor!
Kind regards, NL
Mr Pein,
I came up from Bideford, North Devon
to watch the Chess Classic for the weekend and would like to
say what a well organised event it was. Very enjoyable from
a spectator's point of view: comfortable viewing, good
analysis and clearly placed screens to follow all the
action.
As an ex pat living down here in Devon
I recall the great London tournaments of the 80's at County
Hall, Lloyds Bank Masters and Great Eastern, Liverpool
Street etc. It's excellent to see our capital city on the
chess map once again after such a long hiatus. Also really
encouraging to see young English Players competing with the
best, a reminder of when Miles, Speelman, Nunn et al used to
take on the old Soviet masters 25 years ago.
Hope your sponsors were pleased and
trust that more events can be organised in the future.
AW
Hi Malcolm,
Many thanks for organising the chess
classic, a very successful and well coordinated event.
SS
Dear Malcolm,
Just like to say that it is absolutely
FIRST CLASS what you are doing with this tournament in
London, good luck with the rest of the tourney and I hope
that coverage continues at such a high level in the general
media. I am sure that everyone involved with chess.
Wishes you and your team well.
Kenny, Glasgow Montrose Chess Club
Dear Malcolm,
congratulations to a fantastically
organized and excitingly played tournament! I enjoyed the
three days onsite watching very much, and thank you for the
free pass. The selection of players together with the Sofia
rules were a very good match. I hope there will be many
happy returns.
MB
Mr Pein,
I just wanted to congratulate you and
your team on a great tournament. I was very sorry not to be
able to make it down to London to see any of it but I have
thoroughly enjoyed it via the excellent website. The format
was just about perfect, the rules and scoring making for a
wealth of exciting and hard-fought games and the choice of
players fascinating. To see our top four GMs acquitting
themselves so well, especially David Howell and Luke McShane,
against such impressive opposition was very enjoyable and
bodes well for the future.
Thank you for all your hard work on
this and I hope it will be possible for this to become a
regular fixture.
PC
Dear Malcolm,
Congratulations on by far the most
successful and exciting chess event that I can remember in
the UK. Although I was only able to follow it on-line, it
provided excellent entertainment for myself and my young
sons. All the players are to be commended for their fighting
chess and their openness for post-game analysis. I hope it
is the first of many such, and that you succeed in your aim
of establishing chess at every primary school in the UK. The
level of interest 'out there' is obvious, but until now
there has been nobody with the skills and imagination to
capitalise on this. Well done indeed.
Regards, TB
Hi Malcolm,
Just wanted to add my congratulations
on a simply marvellous event. Who knows, you might have
single handedly woken up UK Chess from a 25 year sleep!
If you need any of my photos for the
magazine just let me know and I will provide hi-res images
to your designer.
Ray M-H
Dear Mr Pein,
Thanks for this wonderful tournament.
I came from Switzerland to live this
event. EVERYTHING was just GREAT! I wish to you and your
team many more such events! I will follow them by internet
with great interest.
Best regards, AV
Malcolm,
I hesitate to add to your no doubt
bulging inbox, but I wanted to write a short note to
congratulate you and thank you for the excellent London
Classic tournament just concluded.
I am sure I will not be the first nor
the last to express these sentiments, but perhaps they carry
all the more weight if I pass on the views of Nigel Short,
with whom I was chatting on the Sunday evening. I told Nigel how much I had
appreciated the event, and thanked him for his own typically
open approach in sharing his own thoughts so freely, frankly
and entertainingly. “This is what all tournaments should be
like”, he said in response, praising you personally and
expressing the wish that no fewer than three such events
could/should be run in the UK each year.
Given how much work was clearly
involved in this one, I shouldn’t think you’ll be
volunteering for quite that level of workload! But I was
delighted to hear that you are planning something else for
next year, along with pitching for the World Championship
match for 2012.
Of course, we all hope that such a
match will in the future once again feature a contender from
our own shores: promoting excellence is an important benefit
from events such as these. But also important is the
generation of widespread grass roots enthusiasm for this
wonderful game – I agree so much with the sentiments
expressed in the Daily Telegraph article reproduced in the
tournament programme.
And it is with that in mind that I
want to pass on how much not only I but also my eight year
old son, George, enjoyed the event. As someone who loves the
game myself, and who had the inspiring experience of having
Viktor Korchnoi visit my school in my youth (playing against
the then-young Julian Hodgson and Willie Watson), it was
very personally meaningful to me to be able to provide my
son with the similarly inspiring experience of seeing Viktor
and the new stars of today in action at Olympia.
George has long enjoyed playing, but
it was wonderful for me to see how thrilled he was at
Olympia - how caught up in the excitement of the atmosphere.
I had thought he might be bored, that spectating at an event
would provide insufficient stimulation to a member of the
video game generation. But not a bit of it – he was
absolutely enthralled and completely caught up in the
“buzz”, impatient to flit between the auditorium, commentary
rooms and the area where Korchnoi was playing.
Best of all for him – although maybe
even more of a thrill for me as a father – was the
opportunity he had to play a little against Luke McShane,
when Luke came over and sat opposite him as George when
playing on his own for a bit at a board while I had to leave
him to make a phone call. Luke was absolutely charming, and
it was a marvellous example of the best of the spirit in
which the tournament was conducted that he should do
something like that.
I have tried to impress on George just
how amazing an experience that was for him – to have the
chance to play against a GM and to be his next “opponent”
just a short time after his fantastic win against Hikaru
Nakamura. I think he realises that as well as it’s possible
for an eight year old to, but it’s really only when he’s
older that he’ll appreciate just how lucky he was. If you’re
in touch with Luke in the near future, please do re-iterate
our appreciation of him doing that.
Of course, mainly that incident speaks
volumes about what a nice chap Luke seems to be. But it does
exemplify something more generally true about chess. Can you
imagine a Premiership footballer seeing a young boy kicking
a ball around in the park and asking to join in, or a top
tennis player or whatever? Not really. Chess – despite being
one of the most intense forms of competition that exists –
lends itself to a spirit of shared enjoyment – a love of the
game and an enjoyment of engaging with other lovers of the
game, be they young or old and professional or very amateur.
George and I were lucky enough to have
a wonderfully close-up insight into that spirit, as we were
fortunate enough to have been provided with VIP tickets for
the event. But I hope and believe that everyone who attended
the event will have caught some of that same buzz, and you
are to be greatly applauded and thanked for that. Let’s hope
the event inspires all those who attended, and provides a
real kick-start for recognition and promotion of the game in
this country.
Very best of luck in the forthcoming
events (e.g. let’s hope the UK authorities can be persuaded
to show a bit more sense in processing visa applications!),
and we very much look forward to them.
Regards, MW
Malcolm,
I took a rather extended Christmas/ New Year break which
is my grovelling excuse for not thanking you before for a
hugely enjoyable dinner at the close of your splendid chess
tournament. It was a great occasion. I thoroughly enjoyed
the tournament - it's the first time I've played through
every game in a tournament on the internet- and I thought it
was a good advertisement for chess . Best wishes for a very
prosperous 2010.
GP
Dear CHESS,
I am a subscriber to your excellent magazine. I came to
the London Chess Classic and would just like to say a big
thank you to all concerned in creating a fantastic several
days of international chess. Can e have more?
Best Wishes, RN
Dear Chess Classic,
The excellent London Chess Classic
gave me the opportunity to fulfill my long held ambition to
play against Viktor 'the terrible' Korchnoi in a
simultaneous display, and I must say I was not disappointed.
Viktor played each game with great determination and energy
and I am sure he wanted to crush everyone of us. The
entertainment continued when one of his opponents was daring
enough to offer him a draw early on to which he just
silently made his reply on the board and moved onto the next
game much to the amusement of the watching crowd.
All Viktor's famous gesturing during
play was in evidence with much arm movements and huffing and
puffing and whilst he was stood thinking he made the most
incredible facial contortions I have ever seen. My own game
came to a halt when Viktor offered me a draw in a double
rook and pawns ending after 28 moves. I would of loved to
have played on but sadly it was now getting late and there
were not many games left so I may even had gone on to lose.
At the end of the evening whilst he was signing my
scoresheet he looked up and said to me 'I was a little
scared of the ending' and as you can imagine this just made
my night!
Maybe he should be known as Viktor
'the not so terrible'.
IP, Manchester.
How to send your email/letter
The London Chess Classic team welcomes
your comments about any aspect of the event. We are
especially interested in reading your experiences of the
tournaments, live coverage, venue, conditions or any
other matter you would like to mention.
Your contribution may appear on this
page. To be considered you should include your name, town or
city.
If you do not want your letter published
please say so at the beginning of the letter.
Send your correspondence to
or post your letter to;
Tournament Director
IM Malcolm Pein
Chess & Bridge
369 Euston Road
London NW1 3AR UK
We look forward to hearing from
you.
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