London Chess Classic 2013

[John Brewitt]

Sorry that he (M.Carlsen) won't be there. I'm sure we'll cope without him.


What we now need is for our tickets (for the 12th December) to be delivered. These are the ones that they said would be sent a month beforehand.

[John Brewitt]

^^^ The tickets arrived today. I'm now really looking forward to this event and to see how the new format compares with the previous events.

[Ray Sayers]

I just bought tickets for the 15th.

I'm assuming if they don't arrive in the post in time you can just turn up and your name will be on the list....?

[Matthew Lunn]

Ray, that is indeed the case!

We're very confident that everyone's tickets will have arrived several days in advance, however

[John Brewitt]

My tickets for the 12th arrived on Monday the 25th, thank you. I'm really looking forward to this event.

I've been, with friends, to three of the last four events and they have all been good games. The commentary room is a must-visit though it will be more challenging for them this time with more games to cover.

[Roger de Coverly]

The commentary room is a must-visit though it will be more challenging for them this time with more games to cover.

It's only the same number of games (four) at any one time, but with each game lasting perhaps less than an hour, the scope for in depth analysis will be limited.

[Angus French]

Malcolm Pein has announced that Jonathan Rowson is the wild card: https://twitter.com/TelegraphChess/stat ... 6454694912

[Colin Patterson]

How come the Women's Invitational is only scheduled for 9 rounds - don't you need 10 for a double round-robin with 6 players?

[LawrenceCooper]

How come the Women's Invitational is only scheduled for 9 rounds - don't you need 10 for a double round-robin with 6 players?

The decision to change the format from the anticipated ten player nine round event was only taken earlier this week so I've yet to submit an updated schedule. I expect that the extra round will take place on the Monday or Tuesday morning in one of the side rooms. The close proximity in dates to the European Team and events surrounding it have contributed to the much lower than expected English entry.

[Colin Patterson]

Thanks Lawrence. A great shame that English players are unable to make more use of such an opportunity. Nice to see that Dagne appears to be returning to chess though.

[LawrenceCooper]

Thanks Lawrence. A great shame that English players are unable to make more use of such an opportunity. Nice to see that Dagne appears to be returning to chess though.

I should have also mentioned the World Youth which starts a couple of days after the Classic as another reason for some players not being available. It's unfortunate that for norms I needed 6 or 10 players, I was probably on course for 8 with a couple including a couple more English players but had to go with the first six confirmed.

[Mick Norris]

Pool 1 Nakamura, Anand, Svidler, Caruana
Pool 2 Kramnik, Adams, Gelfand, Short
Pool 3 McShane, Polgar, Howell, Sadler
Pool 4 Jones, Rowson, 2 open qualifiers

according to TWIC

[Roger de Coverly]

Pool 1 Nakamura, Anand, Svidler, Caruana
Pool 2 Kramnik, Adams, Gelfand, Short
Pool 3 McShane, Polgar, Howell, Sadler
Pool 4 Jones, Rowson, 2 open qualifiers

according to TWIC

not the actual groups, just the seeds from which the groups will be selected.

[David Sedgwick]

Pool 1 Nakamura, Anand, Svidler, Caruana
Pool 2 Kramnik, Adams, Gelfand, Short
Pool 3 McShane, Polgar, Howell, Sadler
Pool 4 Jones, Rowson, 2 open qualifiers

according to TWIC

not the actual groups, just the seeds from which the groups will be selected.

The draw will take place on Wednesday 4th December at 1000 at Ravenscroft Primary School, Newham. The school received a British Chess Educational Trust award earlier this year.

The draw will not be published for a day or two, as it's been agreed that the players will be notified first.

As I have to be up early to go to Ravenscroft, I'd better sign off now.

[Alex Holowczak]

Pool 1 Nakamura, Anand, Svidler, Caruana
Pool 2 Kramnik, Adams, Gelfand, Short
Pool 3 McShane, Polgar, Howell, Sadler
Pool 4 Jones, Rowson, 2 open qualifiers

according to TWIC

not the actual groups, just the seeds from which the groups will be selected.

The draw will take place on Wednesday 4th December at 1000 at Ravenscroft Primary School, Newham. The school received a British Chess Educational Trust award earlier this year.

The draw will not be published for a day or two, as it's been agreed that the players will be notified first.

As I have to be up early to go to Ravenscroft, I'd better sign off now.

My experience of these things in football is that there's usually a lavish ceremony for the draw, presented by a male and a female with tenuous connections to the game and speaking English with a thick foreign accent. The draw itself then takes several hours, as the show is padded with a series of musical performances from some of the leading national artists of the day. There is then further padding by interviewers asking players and managers sitting in the crowd about the draw, who they hope to avoid, and alleging that the managers are nervous when really they're just fed up of waiting for the draw to be made. When the draw does commence, it takes a long time, because an unnecessarily complicated drawing formula is used, and the celebrities brought in to do the draw usually struggle to open the plastic balls containing the name of the team inside. Three hours later, we have the obligatory "Hopefully this is <team>, or else we'll have to start the whole draw again!" joke, and finally the teams are divided into groups and at last Gary Lineker can apologise for the overrunning, and complain about how long the whole ceremony was.

I trust the draw for the Classic will be far more efficient at its draw today in Newham.