U2100 Round Robins - all-play-all tournaments at the Emirates Stadium
The U2100 Rounds Robins are a series of 6-player (5-round) all-play-all tournaments held at the Emirates Stadium open to players rated below 2100. Entrants to the U2100 Round Robin tournaments 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 Round Robin tournaments is 72 players (12 x 6-player tournaments). 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 Round Robins, you must have a FIDE rating below 2100 (September 2025 rating list). Players with ratings above 2100 are invited to join one of the many other tournaments taking place at the London Chess Classic, including the LCC Masters
In which Round Robin will I play?
Once all the entries for the Round Robins have been received, the players will be placed in rating order. The 6 highest rated players will compete in Round Robin A. Players ranked 7-12 will compete in Round Robin B, etc. We expect the players in each tournament to have ratings within a 150-point range.
Venue
All games in the Round Robins will be played at the Emirates Stadium. The tournaments will take place in the Dial Square Gallery. There may be some noise from blitz tournaments and the grandmaster commentary that are taking place in the main body of Dial Square below, but the organisers will make every effort to minimise this.
Schedule
Round 1: Thursday 27th November @ 6pm
Round 2: Friday 28th November @ 6pm
Round 3: Saturday 29th November @ 6pm
Round 4: Sunday 30th November @ 6pm
Round 5: Monday 1st December @ 6pm
Entry fee
£50 if entering before Wednesday 19th November, £75 entry fee thereafter. N.B. We anticipate this event selling out.
Free entry for:
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 above must play all 5 rounds. Players will be required to pay the standard entry fee upfront and will have that refunded at the end of the tournament on completion of all 5 games.
All players, irrespective of their country of FIDE registration, 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
1st - £100 + trophy
Registration
All players must confirm their participation by emailing festival@londonchessclassic.com on Wednesday 26th 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 address you may have for one of the event organisers as these may not be being monitored.
Time Control
80 minutes for the game, with a 10-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
Byes are not permitted in this event and players are expected to play all 5 rounds.
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 all rounds will be published by 10.30pm on Wednesday 26th September.
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 prize 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.
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.
The ratings used for this tournament will be in the following order of priority:
FIDE rating
ECF rating
Where a player has none of these, the organisers will assign an estimate based on all available data on a case-by-case basis, failing which the player will be assigned a rating of 0.
The conversion between ECF ratings and FIDE ratings will be FIDE = ECF.
All entrants must have a FIDE Identification Number at the time of submitting their entry, unless they wish their FIDE nationality to be England. English players without a FIDE Identification Number will have one created at the time the rating files are submitted by FIDE. Please note: At the time of writing, changing your nationality costs 50 Euros.
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.
