LCC Masters - a 9-round tournament with excellent norm opportunities
The LCC Masters is a 9-round Swiss tournament for players FIDE rated 2100 and over held at the Emirates Stadium (rounds 1-8) and London Novotel West (Round 9). The tournament is suitable for players seeking title norms - the organisers will invite a minimum of 10 grandmasters to participate. Entrants to the LCC Masters tournament are also able to spectate on the main event of the 2025 XTX Markets London Chess Classic or listen to the live grandmaster commentary once their own game has finished, at no extra charge.
Due to space limitations, the capacity for the LCC Masters is 120 players. We expect to sell out and so encourage players to book their place using the entry form linked below. A full list of entrants will be published on this website in due course.
Tournament Rules
Who can enter?
To enter the LCC Masters, you must have a standard FIDE rating of 2100 or over (September 2025 rating list). Players with ratings below 2100 are invited to join one of the many other tournaments taking place at the London Chess Classic, including the U2100 Round Robin events. The LCC Masters is also open to members of the Chess Trust Accelerator Programme, subject to the prior agreement of the LCC Organiser.
Venue
All games in the LCC Masters will be played at the Emirates Stadium with the exception of Round 9 which will be at London Novotel West.
Schedule
The FIDE Masters is a 9-round event played over 7 days with two rounds per day on Friday 28th and Sunday 30th November.
Round 1: Thursday 27th November @ 4pm (Emirates Stadium)
Round 2: Friday 28th November @ 10am (Emirates Stadium)
Round 3: Friday 28th November @ 4pm (Emirates Stadium)
Round 4: Saturday 29th November @ 4pm (Emirates Stadium)
Round 5: Sunday 30th November @ 10am (Emirates Stadium)
Round 6: Sunday 30th November @ 4pm (Emirates Stadium)
Round 7: Monday 1st December @ 4pm (Emirates Stadium)
Round 8: Tuesday 2nd December @ 4pm (Emirates Stadium)
Round 9: Wednesday 3rd December @ 4pm (London Novotel West)
Entry fee
£100 if entering before Wednesday 19th November, £150 thereafter. N.B. We anticipate this event selling out.
Free entry for:
GMs, IMs
*female players (British citizens only)
*U25 (must be born on or after 26/11/2000) (British citizens only)
active CSC tutors
Please note: to receive a free entry, players in the categories marked * above must guarantee to play at least 8 rounds (i.e. maximum one bye). These players will be required to pay the normal entry fee upfront and will have that refunded at the end of the tournament on completion of 8 games.
All players registered to ENG must either be Gold members of the ECF or pay a £20 Pay-to-Play surcharge. This includes players who qualify for free entry - the Pay-to-Play surcharge will not be refunded.
Prize fund - £33,500
1st - £10,000
2nd - £5,000
3rd - £3,000
4th - £2,000
5th-8th - £1,000
Rating prizes:
2300-2399: £1,000, £500
2200-2299: £1,000, £500
2100-2199: £1,000, £500
Additional prizes:
Top women - £2,000, £1,000, £500
Top player aged U21 (born on or after 26th Nov 2004) - £1,000, £500
British Championship Qualifying Places
There is one British Championship qualifying place available at the LCC Masters.
Registration
All players must confirm their participation by emailing festival@londonchessclassic.com on Tuesday 25th November before 8pm. You will be reminded by email to do this. Players who do not register will not be included in the published pairings for Round 1. Please note: Do not use any other e-mail addresses you may have for one of the event organisers as they may not be being monitored.
Time Control
90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes until the end of the game, with a 30-second increment for each move starting from move one. The default time for this event is one hour after the scheduled start time of each round.
Byes
Players may take up to two half point byes. Half point byes may be requested (or a request may be cancelled) either:
In advance. Players can request (a) bye(s) when completing the entry form or at any point up to 24 hours before the start of the first round of the tournament.
During the tournament. Players can request a bye for any future round once the tournament begins providing the request is made before 10pm on the evening before that round (Rounds 1,2,4,5,7,8,9) or 3pm on the day of the round (Rounds 3, 6).
A request for a bye should be made at the Information Desk at the event, or by email to festival@londonchessclassic.com (do not use any other email address to request a bye).
A player will score 0 if the second half point bye request is in the last round, or if both the half point byes are requested in the last two rounds.
Additional zero-point byes are available on special request in advance to the Chief Arbiter festival@londonchessclassic.com. Players who miss more rounds than the number of Half Point Byes permitted in each tournament will be withdrawn from the tournament, unless the Chief Arbiter decides otherwise.
Defaults
A player who defaults a game will not be included in the pairings for the next round of the tournament, or any subsequent round, unless the Chief Arbiter decides otherwise.
Pairings
Pairings for each round will be published by 10.30pm on the day before, with pairings for rounds 3 and 6 published as soon as possible after the conclusion of rounds 2 and 5 respectively.
Late pairings
The Organisers may permit players to enter (or register) after the pairings have been published for Round 1 of a tournament. In general, these players will score 0 points in the rounds they have missed. However, the player may be paired against another player in this category, who has entered the same tournament, and that game shall be played as though part of the tournament; and thus, they will count towards the tournament scores, and be ECF and FIDE rated. Should any players remain after this process, then they will be considered available for any of the pairing procedures below once the default time for the relevant tournament has elapsed.
Extra Games
A player whose opponent does not arrive before the default time will win their tournament game by forfeit.
The player who won their game will then be offered the following opportunities for an ECF and FIDE rated game. The arbiters will use their best endeavours to pair such players in the following priority order, against a player whose rating is broadly equal to their own:
A game against a player in the same tournament as them
A game against a player in a different tournament to them
A game against a player who has entered neither tournament, but who is available to play a game that day
The player is entitled to declare that they do not wish to play a game, and the arbiters will exclude the player from the Extra Games process.
Extra Games will be submitted for rating but do not count towards the results of the tournament. The time limit for these games will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Fair Play Policy
Please read the London Chess Classic Festival Fair Play Policy for rules governing players’ conduct during the games.
Prize Calculation
The place prizes in all tournaments will be awarded to the player scoring the most points. There will be no tie-breaks applied, and in the event of a tie on points, the prize money will be shared equally between all tied players.
The rating prizes will be calculated on W-We, where W is the number of points scored, We is the expected number of points based on the difference between the ratings of the players in the game. A player is only eligible for a rating prize if:
The player has not defaulted any games in the tournament, and
The player had not withdrawn from the tournament (see the section on Byes above)
Where there is a tie for a rating prize, the prize shall be won by the lowest-rated player involved in the tie.
Where a player wins a place prize and a rating prize, the player will win whichever prize is of the higher value.
The additional prizes are won in addition to any other prize a player might win, and are awarded as if they were place prizes.
Prize lists
Full prize lists for each tournament will be published online as soon as possible at the end of the tournaments. The event organisers will contact all prize winners as soon as possible to arrange for the payment of prizes.
Ratings
All tournaments will be submitted to the ECF and FIDE for ECF rating and FIDE rating. It is a condition of playing in the London Chess Classic that the data submitted at the time of entry will be forwarded to the ECF and FIDE as required to enable the games played to be rated by the ECF and FIDE.
Players registered to the Russian or Belarusian chess federations remain banned from FIDE events and will not be able to take part in the London Chess Classic.
Appeals Procedure
Decisions of an arbiter may be appealed to the Appeals Committee provided that
Such an appeal is received in writing within 30 minutes of the arbiter’s decision, and
Such an appeal is accompanied by an appeal fee of £50 which will be returned if the appeal is successful.
The Committee for the Elite Tournament will serve as the Appeals Committee for the Festival.
Parental Responsibility
Parents or guardians are responsible for their children during the tournament. The organisers and helpers are not able to act “in loco parentis” and are not able to take responsibility for any child’s actions, or for the actions of anyone that may affect your child. The Emirates Stadium does not allow children under the age of 16 to be unaccompanied. All players under the age of 16 must have a parent or guardian on-site at all times.
Liability
The organisers accept no responsibility for any loss, theft or accident during the tournament.
Right to Refuse Entry
The Chief Organiser reserves the right to refuse entry without being required to state a reason, and to transfer players between tournaments at any time.
Zero Tolerance to Abuse
The Chief Arbiter is empowered to expel a player from all tournaments entered, either for a number or rounds, a number of days, or in their entirety, who shows dissent by word or action towards an arbiter, or any member of staff connected with the London Chess Classic.
