Final Crosstable
Nr.	Title	Name	Fed.	Rating	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		tot	TPR
1	GM	Magnus Carlsen	NOR	2848		1	1	3	1	3	3	3	3		18	2991
2	GM	Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2795	1		3	1	1	1	3	3	3		16	2939
3	GM	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	2760	1	0		1	1	3	3	3	1		13	2846
4	GM	Michael Adams	ENG	2710	0	1	1		3	1	3	1	3		13	2852
5	GM	Viswanathan Anand	IND	2775	1	1	1	0		1	1	1	3		9	2749
6	GM	Levon Aronian	ARM	2815	0	1	0	1	1		1	3	1		8	2701
7	GM	Judit Polgar	HUN	2705	0	0	0	0	1	1		3	1		6	2617
8	GM	Luke McShane	ENG	2713	0	0	0	1	1	0	0		3		5	2564
9	GM	Gawain Jones	ENG	2644	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	0			3	2514

Exclusive screening of the award winning Brooklyn Castle documentary

All players and participants welcome on Friday 7th in the Auditorium 11.30am.

WHAT: Critically acclaimed documentary film Brooklyn Castle will be shown for the first time in the UK at an exclusive screening at the London Chess Classic 2012, Britain’s leading chess tournament. The film takes an intimate look at the challenges and triumphs faced by members of junior high school Brooklyn Castle's champion chess team, amidst financial crises and unprecedented public school budget cuts. Having won audience awards at the South by Southwest, Newport Beach and Hot Docs film festivals, Brooklyn Castle is hotly tipped for a spot on the shortlist for the Best Documentary Oscar.

The London Chess Classic 2012 is running at the Olympia Conference Centre until 10th December, featuring the strongest ever line-up at a British chess tournament. The tournament is the flagship event of UK charity ‘Chess in Schools and Communities’ (CSC), whose mission is to give primary school children around the country the chance to learn how to play chess.

London Classic vs. Twittersphere.

On 30 November at 1400 GMT 0900 EST there will be a press conference at the venue, followed by a London Classic Stars versus the Twittersphere exhibition match played via Twitter, allowing the world’s chessplayers to test their mettle against Carlsen, Anand and co.

The press conference will be streamed LIVE via the net: questions are welcome and may be sent in advance to  or in real-time via the official Twitter feed, which is @LondonClassic. (Please use the hashtag #londonchess in your tweets.)

The opening ceremony for the Classic will take place at 1345 GMT on 1 December, with play beginning at 1400 GMT 0900 EST. Play will be streamed LIVE.

London Classic 2012

This year’s line-up is stronger than ever, with an average rating higher than any previous chess tournament held in the UK. Heading the list are world champion Vishy Anand, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, and the top two players on the world rating list, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian.

Playing for the first time is the world’s best ever woman player Judit Polgar. Completing the line-up are US champion Hikaru Nakamura and three leading players from Britain, Luke McShane, Michael Adams and Gawain Jones.

On 30 November at 1400 GMT 0900 EST there will be a press conference at the venue, followed by a London Classic Stars versus the Twittersphere exhibition match played via Twitter, allowing the world’s chessplayers to test their mettle against Carlsen, Anand and co.

The press conference will be streamed live via the net: questions are welcome and may be sent in advance to director@londonchessclassic.com or in real-time via the official Twitter feed, which is @LondonClassic. (Please use the hashtag #londonchess in your tweets.)

The opening ceremony for the Classic will take place at 1345 GMT on 1 December, with play beginning at 1400 GMT 0900 EST. Play will be streamed live via the official website.

Concert of music

This year’s London Chess Classic opening ceremony, at 13.45 GMT on Saturday 1 December, features a mini-concert of music played by two professional musicians who also happen to be chess enthusiasts.

Jason Kouchak is a widely-acclaimed concert pianist who plays popular music and jazz as well as classical music. Jason was born in France and studied piano at the Royal College of Music in London, and at Edinburgh University. He has performed in major concert halls in London, Paris, St Petersburg and other venues in Europe and Asia. He has recorded five albums, including his own compositions, and appeared on BBC TV and the Japanese NHK channel. He has made regular guest appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and recorded and performed with Julian Lloyd-Webber.

Jason’s tastes and talents underline the long-established link between chess and music. He is a committed and enthusiastic competition chess player, and played in the 2011 London Classic Open and 2009 Gibraltar tournaments as well as in other domestic chess competitions. He is an active supporter of the Chess in Schools and Communities charity. Those lucky enough to attend the Gibraltar Chess Festival will already have had the chance to hear Jason’s delightful playing. Jason’s website is www.jasonkouchak.com.

Alf Wilhelm Lundberg has been a prominent name on the jazz scene in Norway since 2008 when he got his breakthrough with Norchestra’s debut record “Norchestra”. He has toured extensively in Europe and Scandinavia, and has performed at some of the biggest jazz festivals in Europe. Though he is mostly known as a guitarist, pianist and composer via Norchestra, since he took delivery of his Brahms guitar (eight strings and played like a cello) from luthier Martin Woodhouse in Cambridge in 2009, Alf Wilhelm has devoted himself completely to mastering this new instrument and to discovering its many possibilities. He has had great reviews for his many solo performances on the Brahms guitar in Europe. Sample Alf Wilhelm’s playing on websites www.alfwilhelmlundberg.no, www.acousticlandscapes.com and www.norchestra.com

Alf Wilhelm came to the 2011 London Chess Classic last year but sadly arrived a bit too late to see his fellow countryman Magnus Carlsen in action. To console himself, he sat down in the foyer, took out his guitar and started playing just as the congress ended. His extraordinarily accomplished playing attracted the attention of tournament reporter John Saunders and participant Nigel Short, who happened to be passing. (If you go to the official website and navigate to last year’s final round report, you can read something about this.) Nigel’s review consisted of just one word: “fantastic!” This year the Classic audience can hear for themselves.

Children of Sacred Heart Primary School pair up for London Chess Classic 2012

08.11.12 - The pairings for the 2012 London Chess Classic are now available. This year, instead of involving the players themselves in the draw at the opening ceremony, the honour of conducting the draw was bestowed upon Liverpool’s Sacred Heart Primary School as a reward for the boom in chess which the school has experienced since chess tutor John Gorman working for the Chess in Schools and Communities charity introduced the game there a year ago.

This innovation highlights the status of the London Classic as the flagship of the charity, and helps to emphasise the link between the two. With it come two significant fringe benefits: spectators can now buy tickets with specific pairings in mind, well ahead of the tournament; and, of course, the players themselves will know for certain which colour they will have against each opponent and when, so that they have an extra three weeks to plan their preparation more specifically. And perhaps plan their evening entertainment! Last year Magnus Carlsen managed to fit in a Premiership football match during the tournament – let’s hope the draw will allow the elite players to book tickets for whatever takes their fancy.

World champion Vishy Anand drew number one, which meant he gets to sit out the first round. The pairing which catches the eye is McShane-Carlsen: the same round and same colours as 2010, when Luke won, and same colours as last year, when they met in round two and drew. After that, Luke has to look forward to Black against a well-rested world champ on the following day. But Luke knows all about tough starts as last year his diary for consecutive days in December read something like “Office: clear in-tray and set answering machine message... Olympia: play world number two... Olympia: play world number one”.

Gawain Jones makes his Classic debut with White against Mickey Adams, while Judit Polgar starts with Black against Vlad Kramnik. Aronian meets Nakamura, and he will be keen to avenge his loss to the American last year – this time the Liverpool schoolchildren have given him the advantage of the white pieces! Nakamura, for his part, will be glad to see he has White against Carlsen in round seven – after three straight Blacks against him in London.

Last rounds are always eagerly awaited, too. The Liverpool children have done a marvellous job here, serving up a humdinger of a last-round pairing between world number one Magnus Carlsen, playing White, and world champion Vishy Anand on 10 December.

Malcolm Pein, Chief Executive of CSC and London Classic director, who was on hand in Liverpool to conduct the draw, added: “We’re well on track to introduce chess into 1,000 schools around the UK in the next five years and the success of Sacred Heart serves to remind us of the scheme’s impact on primary school children in the inner cities. The London Chess Classic 2012 is free to enter for children and we look forward to welcoming over 1000 to Olympia to discover all that chess has to offer.”

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