English Chess Forum

The cover of the latest edition of Chess Monthly informs the London Chess Classic is back

https://chess.co.uk/collections/new-che ... ember-2023

But the details are not in the preview so I’d guess we will have to await the magazine to land on subscribers doormats for full details.

Paul Heaton wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 01, 2023 3:43 pm

The cover of the latest edition of Chess Monthly informs the London Chess Classic is back

https://chess.co.uk/collections/new-che ... ember-2023

But the details are not in the preview so I’d guess we will have to await the magazine to land on subscribers doormats for full details.

I saw something on Twitter, maybe a month or so ago, saying there would be a classic but I got the impression it was more likely to be a private event than one open to all and with limited room for spectators.

LawrenceCooper wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 01, 2023 3:58 pm

there would be a classic but I got the impression it was more likely to be a private event than one open to all and with limited room for spectators.

That seems confirmed by Malcolm's editorial piece in the latest Chess. He also mentions a ProBiz cup and a dinner at the Savoy. Details of perticipants, dates and venue are sketchy other than to say that Gukesh (second in the FIDE Grand Prix) has been invited. It's also hoping to fulfill the requirements for it to be part of the FIDE Circuit 2023 which provides a spot for the next Candidates. Other than that, it's a ten player all play all with a targeted average rating of over 2650.

I haven't really followed it over the years but it does appear to have lost its stature on the circuit compared to how things were. What happened there? It used to be the best in the world against the best English players and was very interesting. Why did it stop being like that?

I agree it was most interesting when it was 4 top English players against 4 of the top players in the rest of the world. After that it became one of a small number of elite international events from which the top player (in all those events) would earn a place in the Candidates tournament.

My understanding was the original sponsor (Peter Davies) dropping away necessitated a change of format, and integration into the Grand Chess Tour. Then Covid came, the venue became unavailable and that was that (though before Covid it was decided 2019 would be the last one as part of the Grand Chess Tour).

All the while I have a poster sat in a tube at home of the 2018 Carlsen Caruana match, signed by Carlsen at the Classic in 2019 awaiting Caruana’s signature at a Classic someday….

I went to it in 2010 and thought it was great.

Malcolm Pein and his team did indeed do a great job organising and putting on and introducing the London Chess Classic and its related Open at Olympia over a number of years. Indeed he also put on a number of graded events during the periods these other events were running and also daily Blitz events and a lot of Junior training sessions and mini tourneys for juniors.

I suspect that the greater cost of large venues and the loss of Olympia to a reconstruction project along with Covid and its constraints may have caused the loss of the various events including The Classic.
Good luck to Malcolm and others for rejuvenating and in bringing back any or all of these events to London-as London does deserve and need a regular annual top series of chess events!

ATB, Owen.

http://www.londonchessclassic.com/?mc_c ... 9ee7ce9867

Player Country Rating
Dommaruju Gukesh India 2746
Nikita Vitiugov England 2712
Amin Tabatabaei Iran 2694
Mickey Adams England 2670
Andrei Volokitin Ukraine 2660
Hans Neimann USA 2659
Mateusz Bartel Poland 2651
Jules Moussard France 2639
Luke McShane England 2626
Shreyas Royal England 2404

This is a terrific list, many interesting games to be expected.

Shreyas will need to score 2/9 in order to gain rating points! His play in the Isle of Man was very impressive, so hopefully he can do better than that.

Perhaps more importantly, 4/9 for a GM norm.

(Also, this tournament has an average rating of over 2600, which may help some arbiters climb up the rankings.)

Gukesh presumably needs to win it for his Candidates chances via the FIDE Circuit

Good luck to Shreyas and the other English players

The first round is December 1, the same day as the December rating list.

Will November or December ratings be used? Gukesh's rating has collapsed from 2746 in November to 2720 on the live list due to his recent setbacks.

Why would FIDE rate the games on anything other than December published rating?

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 16, 2023 9:03 pm

Why would FIDE rate the games on anything other than December published rating?

Good question. For that reason I try not to have any of my norm events starting too close to the start of the month.