3rd London Chess Classic 2011

Olympia Conference Centre, Kensington, London

Press Releases

London Classic 2011

Tuesday 8th November 2011

 The ‘2800 Club’ Converge on London!

The 2011 London Chess Classic is now just a month away - and it’s just got a little bit stronger. The latest ratings published by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, are the ones which will apply to the event. At the top of the list, for the first time in the history of chess competition, there are four players rated 2800 or more. And it just so happens that these four gentlemen are playing in London next month!

Have a look at the table below...

	The ‘2800 Club’

 ... and you can see that Vladimir Kramnik has enjoyed a great run of form recently and hauled himself back up to 2800 for the first time since he ceased to be world champion. It also means the London Chess Classic will have an average rating over 2730, making it comfortably the strongest event ever held on these shores.

In a strange way, London will actually have 4½ members of the ‘2800 Club’. Don’t believe me? Well, we have it on very good authority that Hikaru Nakamura is now being coached and assisted by Garry Kasparov, one of only two former members of the ‘2800 Club’ (Topalov being the other) not in the London line-up. Garry retired from chess several years but his gaze is still firmly fixed on events in London, as it was last year, when he paid us a two-day visit and enjoyed the play as a VIP guest.

GARRY’S REVENGE?

Hikaru will be hoping that Garry brings him what he brought Magnus Carlsen in 2009, when Kasparov was coaching the Norwegian from afar. It seems he brought him not just chess expertise but a large slice of luck! It was Garry who advised Magnus to prepare the English Opening (1 c4) against his major rival Vladimir Kramnik in 2009. At the drawing of lots, the players were invited to pick up a white pawn from a giant chess set. Magnus went first - and chose the pawn he intended to play against Vlad. It had the number “one” underneath! Vlad Kramnik was seen to shake his head - he stepped up, chose a pawn and found the number “eight” underneath it. That meant the first round pairing was Carlsen (White) versus Kramnik. The next day Magnus duly pushed 1 c4 and won - something his coach didn’t manage to achieve when defending his world title against Kramnik in 2000. Is Garry trying to gain revenge for 2000 via his protégés? If Hikaru is “channelling” Kasparov and manages to beat Vlad, then Garry will have achieved a measure of revenge for the two losses he suffered against Kramnik eleven years ago.

Of course, the London Classic is not just about the guys mentioned above. Ask any elite chessplayer what they want Santa to bring them for Christmas and it would be the London Chess Classic trophy. The tournament rounds off the chess year and all the players will be motivated to end on a high note as they head off for their winter break.

Timetable, course details and tickets are available here: www.londonchessclassic.com

For further information please contact:

Malcolm Pein,

Tournament Director,

London Chess Classic

Email:

Download this press release (221Kb)

London Classic 2011

Monday 12th September

The timetable for the third London Chess Classic has been announced. The strongest tournament in the history of British chess will be complemented by a chess festival with

tournaments for all levels and of course free chess coaching for schools.

The tournament runs from 3-12 December 2011 and falls on two weekends so we expect even more spectators as well as more players in the FIDE Open as amateur players will only have to take one full week off work. It also means there will be two sets of weekend tournaments and blitz tournaments every evening.

Viktor Korchnoi has agreed to come back again as guest of honour and will give two simultaneous displays. We will have at least one Women’s all-play-all.

There will be training courses for chess teachers and for those who would like to become chess teachers, both organised by the charity Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC). Since the last London Chess Classic, CSC has expanded and works in 70 schools in 13 towns and cities in England and Wales. See www.chessinschools.co.uk.

The London Chess Classic now comes under the Chess in Schools and Communities umbrella and there will be five days of free school activities. Each day, schools can bring children to learn from top coaches and play in a tournament or a simultaneous display. There will also be a chess arbiter’s training course, and on the rest day, Wednesday 7 December, a chess cultural day with film screenings, lectures and more simultaneous displays.

Timetable, course details and tickets are available here: www.londonchessclassic.com 

PLAYER NUMBER NINE: LEVON ARONIAN

Armenian star Levon Aronian has been confirmed as the ninth participant. This completes the line-up of 2800+ rated stars in the line-up alongside the world chess champion, Viswanathan Anand from India, and the teenage sensation who currently outranks him on the world chess rating list, Magnus Carlsen from Norway; not to mention Anand’s immediate predecessor as world champion, Vladimir Kramnik from Russia.

THE LINE-UP

Magnus Carlsen of Norway remains the hottest property in world chess. In 2009 he used the London Classic as his launch pad to become the youngest player ever to reach the top of the world rating list and he has stayed there on most subsequent lists. And in 2010, just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, he did it again, despite losing a couple of games. ‘Veni, vidi, vici’: “I came, I saw, I conquered”... but even Julius Caesar only conquered Britain once! So Magnus is back to try and lift the London Classic trophy for a third time. If he does it, we’re going to promote him from Magnus (“great” in Latin) to Maximus (“the greatest”)...

Viswanathan Anand became the undisputed world chess champion in 2007 and has since defended the title twice in matches with Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 and Veselin Topalov in 2010. In an age when more and more players are playing professional chess, with infinitely more sophisticated training resources and information available to them, his achievement in defending the top spot from all comers is as impressive as any of the successes of his championship predecessors. Vishy has maintained his form in 2011 and his fans will be eagerly watching his play in London as he will be required to defend his title against Israeli GM Boris Gelfand in 2012 and needs some top-quality opposition to hone his play.

Levon Aronian of Armenia will be 29 by the time of the third London Chess Classic in December 2011 and, with his inclusion in the ‘magnificent nine’, London will be able to claim the last jewel in the crown of elite chess. Along with world number one Magnus Carlsen and world champion Vishy Anand, Levon is the only player in the world who currently sports a 2800+ world rating, so he is currently ‘the third man’ occupying the peak of chess Olympus. He has a current world title, having won the last World Blitz Championship, and he has won several other world titles in the past, including the 2002 World Junior Championship (ahead of Luke McShane) and the 2009 World Rapidplay Championship. Just to complete the picture of his chess virtuosity, he is a former world champion of Chess960, a variant of the game where the pieces on the back rank are placed randomly and the players are thus unable to rely on their memory of opening theory and thrown onto their own strategic resources.

Vladimir Kramnik was world champion from 2000 to 2007. His greatest claim to fame was being the only organic (as opposed to digital!) chessplayer ever to defeat the world’s best ever player Garry Kasparov in matchplay. In 2011 he won the Dortmund Sparkassen tournament for a record tenth(!) time and in great style. There is something of a rivalry between Kramnik and Carlsen in major events, much as there was between the young Kramnik and Kasparov. So far the young Norwegian has finished ahead of the Russian ex-world champion both times in London but he will do well to deny ‘Big Vlad’ forever. The former world champion shows sign of sharpening his style somewhat recently so we could see fireworks in 2011.

Hikaru Nakamura, two-times US champion, is nicknamed ‘H Bomb’ for his explosive and uncompromising style of play and widely recognised as one of the world’s greatest players, particularly at blitz chess. He had a great start to 2011, winning the Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee tournament with 9/13 ahead of the four top-rated players in the world, Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Kramnik - all of whom he will meet again at the 2011 London Classic, of course. Writing of Hikaru’s stellar achievement at Wijk aan Zee 2011, Garry Kasparov was full of praise: he reminded us that Bobby Fischer had never won a tournament ahead of a reigning world champion and that we would have to look back to Harry Pillsbury’s 1895 Hastings victory for an equivalent tournament success by an American. Later in the year Hikaru defeated former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov in a six-game match held in Saint Louis, Missouri (where Hikaru now lives).

Michael Adams, known as Mickey, has a strong claim to being Britain’s best ever chessplayer based on his consistently high rating over many years. He broke all significant national age records to become a grandmaster and win the British Championship at the age of 17 in 1989. He is currently Britain’s top-rated player and for a while a few years ago was ranked number four in the world behind Kasparov, Anand and Kramnik. He is the reigning British Champion, having edged Nigel Short in a tie-break in August.

Nigel Short will always be remembered as one of the most famous chess prodigies, as well as the first non-Russian since Bobby Fischer to break the Russian monopoly contesting world championship matches back in the 1990s. At 46 he is now one of the oldest players amongst the world’s top 100 rated players but his appetite for the game shows no sign of diminishing. He is in pretty good form, too. He started 2011 with a phenomenal 8½/10 score at a Gibraltar Masters tournament that was littered with top-class grandmasters and he has since come within a couple of tie-breaks of winning both the Commonwealth and British championship titles.

Luke McShane, 27, had a brilliant career as a chess prodigy before going up to Oxford and starting an equally career as a financial professional. The London Chess Classic provided him with a way back into chess and he grasped the opportunity with both hands with a wonderful 2010 performance, defeating Carlsen and finishing second equal with world champion Vishy Anand. This re-established Luke in the world top 100 and he carried his good form into the Tata (formerly Corus) Wijk aan Zee ‘B’ tournament in January 2011, winning the tournament on tie-break from David Navara and qualifying for the 2012 ‘A’ group. He has since returned to full-time financial work but he has already earned the respect of his peers as one of the best (if not the best) amateur chessplayers in the world.

David Howell, the 2009 British Champion, is also a very gifted and determined player who is widely tipped to advance into the world’s elite very soon. The London Classic has provided him with an excellent opportunity to cross swords with some legends of the game, and he brought off his best-ever tournament success at the 2009 tournament, finishing third behind Carlsen and Kramnik. David is currently studying a course in Folklore, Mythology and Medieval Renaissance Literature at Cardiff University.

The average rating of the 2011 London Chess Classic (September 2011 list) is 2747 – this surpasses last year’s average by 18 points and is an unprecedented figure for a tournament held in Britain. It also makes it one of the strongest tournaments held anywhere in the world this year.

PLAY CHESS!

If all this talk of chess rivalries is only making you thirst for some chess action yourself... you can play chess at the London Chess Classic, under the same roof as the super-stars! There are all sorts of events and prizes for all chess standards and tastes, from the humblest beginner, and tournaments which last days at a time, or over the weekend – or for just part of a day (e.g. evening blitz events lasting no longer than 2½ hours). Entry forms are available for download NOW from the tournament website at www.londonchessclassic.com.

Apart from the elite Classic tournament, there is a nine-round world-rated open which attracts professional grandmasters from around the world, chasing the £2,500 first prize. One of the legendary figures of the game, Viktor Korchnoi, will be playing simultaneous displays, where amateur players can experience what it is like to face the player who contested world championship matches with Anatoly Karpov in the 1970s and 1980s.

2010 Tournament (n.b. win = 3pts, draw = 1pt)

Final Placings: 1. Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 13/21, 2-3. Viswanathan Anand (IND), Luke McShane (ENG) 11, 4. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 10, 5. Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) 10, 6. Michael Adams (ENG) 8, 7. David Howell (ENG) 4, 8. Nigel Short (ENG) 2.

2009 Tournament (n.b. win = 3pts, draw = 1pt)

Final Placings: 1. Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 13/21, 2. Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) 12, 3. David Howell (ENG) 9, 4. Michael Adams (ENG) 9, 5. Luke McShane (ENG) 7, 6. Ni Hua (CHN) 6, 7. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 6, 8. Nigel Short (ENG) 5.

For more information and to buy tickets to The London Chess Classic, please go to www.londonchessclassic.com Tickets are on sale NOW from the website or from the London Chess Centre, 44 Baker Street, W1U 7RT (tel. 020 7486 8222).

For further information please call:

Malcolm Pein,

Tournament Director,

London Chess Classic

Email:

Download this press release (66Kb)

London Classic 2011 announcement

4th July 2011

Chess in Schools and Communities is delighted to announce that the 3rd London Chess Classic will be staged at the Olympia Conference Centre in Kensington from Saturday 3rd December to Monday 12th December. The 3rd edition of what has already become one of the world’s most prestigious tournaments will be bigger and better than its predecessors, with more children’s events and an even stronger field, the composition of which will be announced shortly.

There will be two extra rounds, as the addition of one more top flight player to this year’s main event will make it a nine player all play all. One player will sit out each day and keep the spectators at Olympia and online, doubly entertained by joining the commentary team. The field is complete and is absolutely stellar with the world champion Vishy Anand aiming to unseat Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the first two London Chess Classic tournaments.

A glance at the Live Rating List shows that the Classic will have four of the world’s top six as we are honoured to welcome for the first time, Levon Aronian from Armenia ranked fourth in the world.

When players are invited to the Classic they always want to return and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik had no hesitation in accepting his invitation. He commented: “I am very glad and honoured to be invited again to London Chess Classic 2011. It is a great tournament in a great city where I have some very pleasant memories.

I can sincerely say that it has quickly become my favourite tournament and I will try my best to win it one day.” Kramnik is ranked fifth in the world and will be looking to avenge his defeat last year by US number one Hikaru Nakamura who has shot up the rankings since London 2010 and is now ranked number six.

The English players will again be led by the UK number one Michael Adams and former world title challenger Nigel Short. David Howell, who surprised everyone including perhaps himself with his stunning debut in 2009 when he came third, will be aiming to repeat this success.

Chess in Schools and Communities is a registered charity which promotes the playing and teaching of chess in state schools in England and Wales.

Download this press release in full | Click for 2011 Schedules

• The 3rd London Chess Classic will be the strongest chess tournament ever held in the UK. The tournament website is www.londonchessclassic.com. 

• The CSC website is www.chessinschools.co.uk.
• Tickets will go on sale for the London Chess Classic in September. The event is free for children.
• For images and pictures please contact:

  Press enquiries to: Malcolm Pein, Chief Executive,  

   

London Chess Classic 2011 dates confirmed

26th March 2011

Chess Promotions Ltd 44 Baker Street, London, W1U 7RT TEL: 0207935 3445 Email: chessinschools@gmail.com

The dates for the London Chess Classic 2011 have been confirmed and the tournament will be held from December 3-12 at the Olympia Conference centre in Kensington. The tournament will change format slightly with the addition of one more player, making the UK’s most prestigious tournament even stronger.

Each day, one player will have a day off and will assist the LCC commentary team both at Olympia and in the internet broadcast, making the Classic even more exciting to watch.

There will also be five days of junior coaching, a Grandmaster Open, and weekend tournaments for players of all levels. An innovation this year will be a chess festival with lectures, teaching and film screenings. The prize fund has been increased again and will be in excess of €150,000. The lineup will be announced in May.

Malcolm Pein (IM), Tournament Director.

© SC

© 2011 London Chess Classic

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