Reports | November 29, 2011 18:17

Pairings London Chess Classic already announced

Pairings London Chess Classic already announced

The organizers of the London Chess Classic today announced the full pairings of the third edition which takes place 3-12 December in London.

The third London Chess Classic will be the strongest tournament in the history of British chess. It will be complemented by a chess festival with tournaments for all levels and of course free chess coaching for schools.

The festival runs from 3-12 December 2011 and falls on two weekends. Again there will be many side events such as a FIDE Open, weekend tournaments, blitz tournaments every evening and a Women’s all-play-all.

Viktor Korchnoi has agreed to come back again as guest of honour and will give two simultaneous displays.

There will also be training courses for chess teachers and for those who would like to become chess teachers, both organised by the charity Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC).

Participants

Name Title Country Rating (1/11/2011) World Ranking
(1/11/2011)		 D.O.B.(dd/mm/yy)
Carlsen, Magnus grandmaster NOR 2826 1 30.11.1990
Anand, Viswanathan world champion IND 2811 2 11.12.1969
Aronian, Levon grandmaster ARM 2802 3 06.10.1982
Kramnik, Vladimir ex-world champion RUS 2800 4 25.06.1975
Nakamura, Hikaru grandmaster USA 2758 10 09.12.1987
Adams, Michael grandmaster ENG 2734 17 17.11.1971
Short, Nigel grandmaster ENG 2698 48 01.06.1965
McShane, Luke grandmaster ENG 2671 74 07.01.1984
Howell, David grandmaster ENG 2633 139 14.11.1990

The average rating of the 2011 London Chess Classic (November 2011 list) is over 2730, making it comfortably the strongest event ever held in the UK.

London Chess Classic 2011 | Full pairings

Round 1 03.12.11 15:00 CET   Round 2 04.12.11 15:00 CET
Kramnik - Nakamura   Howell - Adams
Aronian - McShane   McShane - Carlsen
Carlsen - Howell   Nakamura - Aronian
Adams - Anand   Short - Kramnik
Short bye Assisting the commentary   Anand bye Assisting the commentary
Round 3 05.12.11 15:00 CET   Round 4 06.12.11 17:00 CET
Aronian - Short   Carlsen - Kramnik
Carlsen - Nakamura   Adams - Short
Adams - McShane   Anand - Nakamura
Anand - Howell   Howell - McShane
Kramnik bye Assisting the commentary   Aronian bye Assisting the commentary
Round 5 08.12.11 15:00 CET   Round 6 09.12.11 15:00 CET
Nakamura - Howell   Adams - Aronian
Short - Anand   Anand - Kramnik
Kramnik - Adams   Howell - Short
Aronian - Carlsen   McShane - Nakamura
McShane bye Assisting the commentary   Carlsen bye Assisting the commentary
Round 7 10.12.11 15:00 CET   Round 8 11.12.11 15:00 CET
Short - McShane   Anand - Carlsen
Kramnik - Howell   Howell - Aronian
Aronian - Anand   McShane - Kramnik
Carlsen - Adams   Nakamura - Short
Nakamura bye Assisting the commentary   Adams bye Assisting the commentary
Round 9 12.12.11 13:00 CET        
McShane   Anand        
Nakamura - Adams        
Short - Carlsen        
Kramnik - Aronian        
Howell bye Assisting the commentary        

For clarification: As the lowest rated player has pairing number 7, according to the tournament regulations, the round this player has the “bye” has been moved to be played as round 9.

Albert Vasse IA – Chief Arbiter

Timetable, course details and tickets are available here: www.londonchessclassic.com

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Editors's picture
Author: Editors

Chess Master School

Comments

Webbimio's picture

Webbimio

1 year 6 months ago

What a fantastic format!
I think that using the bye to help the analysis of the games is just great, and hope that many other tournaments will choose this way to go.

fen's picture

fen

1 year 6 months ago

The commentary format is fine for this tournament, but I hope other tournaments don't follow it. Some of the best chess players Ivanchuk, Morozevich, et. al. aren't exactly the most gregarious people. It would be a shame if they weren't selected to play in tournaments because they weren't entertaining enough in the commentary booth. Not to mention the fact that the chess players should be focusing on the quality of their chess and not worrying about whether they are amusing enough to be invited back.

Felix's picture

Felix

1 year 6 months ago

You must be kidding when telling us that morozevich wouldn't be entertaining as commentator.

fen's picture

fen

1 year 6 months ago

Mercurial is how he is often described. I have seen good interviews from him and bad depending on what mood he's in. You might find that in itself entertaining, but an organizer may not want to deal with that level of unpredictability.

Harry's picture

Harry

1 year 6 months ago

You must be kidding when telling us that Ivanchuk wouldn't be entertaining as commentator.

fen's picture

fen

1 year 6 months ago

Haha Ha ;)

spynozy's picture

spynozy

1 year 6 months ago

i would love to listen to Ivanchuk thoughts... so fingers crossed that he gets invited to the next edition.

Daniel's picture

Daniel

1 year 6 months ago

Chucky is phenomenal!

Webbimio's picture

Webbimio

1 year 6 months ago

Basically, I agree with you. You're are right pointing out that the choice of the players should be based on their strength and not on theyr skill in public relations. I can add that I even think that the "fighting spirit", which so many talk about, shouldn't be more important from the organizer's point of view than the real strength of the players (for example, I would like to see Peter Leko in super-tournaments again, because he IS really strong, and that's all).
But I think that actually Moro and Ivanchuk would be very entartaining!

Zeblakob's picture

Zeblakob

1 year 6 months ago

I hope dat Anand wins this tourneo with MC and shows to the world dat he is a WC with cojones, like an old lion.

Sander's picture

Sander

1 year 6 months ago

We all hope anand will do well, but we all KNOW he's gonna play a lot of draws again. I'd say there's a 80% chance MC will be at least co-winner, as it should be.

SexyZeblakob's picture

SexyZeblakob

1 year 6 months ago

---deleted---
http://www.chessvibes.com/terms

Zeblakob's picture

Zeblakob

1 year 6 months ago

Wat did y say?

Per's picture

Per

1 year 6 months ago

Great - will be there 9 or 10 December.

Was there in 2009 on my way to Copenhagen, really liked the venue. Come on, Short!

Solomon Francis's picture

Solomon Francis

1 year 6 months ago

Nakamura has a very tough first 4 rounds. This will be a good test for him. I am hoping he has a good tournament.

Arjo's picture

Arjo

1 year 6 months ago

Carlsen commenting on Anand-Kramnik... nice :-)

Thomas Richter's picture

Thomas Richter

1 year 6 months ago

And Kramnik takes care of Carlsen-Nakamura - former and current students of his good friend Kasparov ...

darkergreen's picture

darkergreen

1 year 6 months ago

which we saw the result of the same encounter a few days ago:)

Michael Lubin's picture

Michael Lubin

1 year 6 months ago

Nice to see a tournament with byes for a change. A single round-robin where everyone gets the same number of Whites has come to seem almost like a "theoretical novelty" of late!

J. Bodvar Sande's picture

J. Bodvar Sande

1 year 6 months ago

I think it is unfair that Magnus always have to play more games with black. This tournament as well as Tal-memorial!

Chris Girardo's picture

Chris Girardo

1 year 6 months ago

Yeah, it's a shame that including this tournament and the Tal Memorial, Carlsen has a total of nine Blacks and only eight Whites. However, in this event it's fair to say everyone has the same number of Blacks as Whites, as everyone plays eight games with four Whites and four Blacks.

Pulern's picture

Pulern

1 year 6 months ago

The format with one of the players commentating is gust genius.
Should be the standard forward for many organizers.
Looking forward to:

(2) Anand on: Nakamura-Aronian
(3) Kramnik on: Carlsen-Nakamura :)
(4) Aronian on: Carlsen-Kramnik
(6) Carlsen on: Anand-Kramnik
(7) Nakamura on: Aronian-Anand

I suspect the highlights of the commentating
will be Kramnik (round 3) and Short (round 1)

karban's picture

karban

1 year 6 months ago

Yes, but now someone can complain that his bye is located in bad moment. Generally, I like single round robin. You meet opponent only one time and if you want or have to win with him there is no second chance.

akim gettings's picture

akim gettings

1 year 6 months ago

the london chess classic has fresh look this yr it should be action packed it seems like the swagger of the tournament is right so the only thing we can do is watch it all go down live from dec 3 - 12 exclusive footage baby.

akim gettings's picture

akim gettings

1 year 6 months ago

the london chess classic has fresh look this yr it should be action packed it seems like the swagger of the tournament is right so the only thing we can do is watch it all go down live from dec 3 - 12 exclusive footage baby.

Szoker's picture

Szoker

1 year 6 months ago

Making tournaments with an odd number of players is a BRILLIANT idea !

I love it ! ;D

Albert Vasse's picture

Albert Vasse

1 year 6 months ago

Please note a small mistake in the schedule. Round 4 starts at 17.00 CET.

Peter Doggers's picture

Peter Doggers

1 year 6 months ago

Thx Albert, corrected!

blueofnoon's picture

blueofnoon

1 year 6 months ago

Who would be the most boring commentator among top players?

maybe's picture

maybe

1 year 6 months ago

"I don't know" Carlsen, no actually I don't know.

christos's picture

christos

1 year 6 months ago

I am looking forward to this tournament. Always rooting for Kramnik ... I wonder who is the favorite among chessvibes readers.

Harish Srinivasan's picture

Harish Srinivasan

1 year 6 months ago

The pts table will be a little confusing to judge who is leading after every day since some players would have played fewer games than others. Nevertheless a system worth trying for its obvious advantages.

noyb's picture

noyb

1 year 6 months ago

The London Classic is becoming a great tournament, hope it can continue into the future. They just need to drop the awful "Soccer" scoring system (terrible).

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 6 months ago

Soccer or not, i'll put oil on fire ... As far as i can see, it doesn´t change so much in the results... Anyway, the most terrible thing with this " soccer " scoring system, it's the word Soccer itself

Jeff's picture

Jeff

1 year 6 months ago

Nakamura's first four rounds are absolutely ridiculous... three blacks against the top four players in the world. Why not just give him four blacks and ask him to play blindfold?!

PP (nl)'s picture

PP (nl)

1 year 6 months ago

They are not *giving* him anything. That is faith. He is just unlucky...

Or not? At least he has very often white against the weaker players, which might be a big advantage; those are the players he should score wins against!

mathijs's picture

mathijs

1 year 6 months ago

in the tal memorial carlsen had black against kramnik,anand,aronian AND nakamura.. still did not prevent him from winning the event.

Everlasting Patzer's picture

Everlasting Patzer

1 year 6 months ago

I do not get how Nakamura is getting so many invitations. I would choose Kamsky instead of him.

Septimus's picture

Septimus

1 year 6 months ago

Kamsky is certainly entertaining. Could definitely use more invites.

Daaim Shabazz's picture

Daaim Shabazz

1 year 6 months ago

Debatable, but certainly a case could be made for Nakamura or Kamsky. However, I don't believe they chose based on nationality.

Thomas Richter's picture

Thomas Richter

1 year 6 months ago

What makes you think that nationality didn't matter (at all)? It clearly matters for the four English players, it doesn't matter for the other four players who were invited because they are world top4, but what about Nakamura? His earlier London results wouldn't make him a must-reinvite, so at the very least the organizers wanted a strong (top10 or top15) player who speaks fluent English and isn't from the former Soviet Union (Topalov probably won't ever be under consideration due to his strained relationship with Nigel Short?).

It may also play a role that the field was decided long in advance, and the organizers choose to make little changes from previous editions. Currently Svidler would be an interesting and logical choice: again a strong player, fluent English, great commentary and one could even consider him "half an Englishman".

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 6 months ago

Nakamura won Corus, and is in the top 10 ...That's probably why he got an invitation ... I'm pretty sure that if Moro stay at this level he will be invited more often

TomTom's picture

TomTom

1 year 6 months ago

Anand should retire

Webbimio's picture

Webbimio

1 year 6 months ago

Carlsen should retire too.
And also Obama, Johnny Depp, Shakira and Santa Claus.

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 6 months ago

what is sharkira doing here ? did she really marry santa clause ?

monte44's picture

monte44

1 year 6 months ago

---deleted---
http://www.chessvibes.com/terms

Knallo's picture

Knallo

1 year 6 months ago

As the lowest rated player has pairing number 7, according to the tournament regulations, the round this player has the “bye” has been moved to be played as round 9.

Why?

tolsky's picture

tolsky

1 year 6 months ago

Well, they don't want the winner free the last round

Knallo's picture

Knallo

1 year 6 months ago

I understand, but it is somehow not very nice to decide in advance that the lowest-rated player has no chance of winning the tournament (although I agree that it's extremely improbable).

columbo's picture

columbo

1 year 6 months ago

a good tournament for Carlsen to get closer from Kasparov record

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