Reports | December 11, 2012 11:39

London Chess Classic: the closing dinner

Carlsen at the closing

Traditionally, after the London Chess Class finishes all the players are brought to central London, where a closing dinner is held with sponsors and friends, at the famous Simpson's-in-the-Strand. Some grandmasters play a simul against the sponsors, other grandmasters can be asked for advice and so it's never a 100% clear which side has the better chances!

Magnus Carlsen received his trophy at the closing dinner | Photos © Ray Morris-Hill

During the closing the prizes were awarded as well. Carlsen won the € 50,000 first prize, Kramnik won € 25,000, Nakamura and Adams both took home € 17,500 while Anand and Aronian both won € 10,000.

The players who won games in London got some extra money as there was an additional winners' pool of € 21,000 for each game won. As there were 19 wins, each victory was worth € 1,105. There was also a Daily Best Game prize of € 1,000.

The glamorous setting for the prize giving dinner at Simpson's-in-the-Strand

Judit Polgar

Aruna and Vishy Anand

Levon Aronian, Luke McShane and Gawain Jones

Katharine Walsh, Head Of Communications for Delancey, drew the raffle

Gawain Jones enjoying the simultaneous display versus the guests

Michael Adams

Vladimir Kramnik

Levon Aronian

Vishy Anand

Luke McShane

Magnus Carlsen

Hikaru Nakamura

The winner of the tournament with his trophy

We thank Ray Morris-Hill for providing us all the great photos during the event.

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Peter Doggers's picture
Author: Peter Doggers

Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.

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Comments

Anonymous's picture

Anonymous

6 months 1 week ago

It's a little harsh to say that Karjakin and Caruana are not as strong as Nakamura, or even Anand at the moment. And Leko and Ponomariov understand the game no worse than Naka for sure.

Eiae's picture

Eiae

6 months 1 week ago

Russian events have HD images with tac sharp focus, correct exposure of the boards and players. Clearly a well thought out and planned production.

LCC had so bad resolution and wrong exposure that it was hard to tell the position on the boards. They also had a weird vignetting effect that made the players have greenish faces. An amateur production, really.
I'd rather have this than no tournament, of course, just stating that there is room for improvment if they want to be on level with the Russian events.

bronkenstein's picture

bronkenstein

6 months 1 week ago

Speaking of improvements, I would be very pleasantly surprised it they invited Shipov next year (he can speak English too!). Not that I expect it to happen anytime soon ... but non-Russian speaking public is IMO losing much by being deprived of his comments.

PS The quality of broadcast also depends on the budget, kudos to Malcolm for organizing it all and exposing himself to all kinds of interned jokes by reminding us about charity the whole thing depends on.

PPS all that being said, I am in fact quite satisfied with the broadcast this time.

Greco's picture

Greco

6 months 1 week ago

Ok a little quiz.
If MC does become WC who do you think will commit suicide first..Reality Check or Reality Check?

The Golden Knight's picture

The Golden Knight

6 months 1 week ago

LOL!

Anonymous's picture

Anonymous

6 months 1 week ago

distasteful really.

Greco's picture

Greco

6 months 1 week ago

Ok Anonymous....Check

jimknopf's picture

jimknopf

6 months 1 week ago

anonymous, I said "despite their strength":
one field does not have quite the same degree of public reputation as the other, for various good reasons. Not much to struggle about anyway.

Thomas's picture

Thomas

6 months 1 week ago

What would be the reason(s), good or not, why Nakamura has a better "public reputation" than Karjakin and Caruana? One might be that he got more top invitations so far (chicken and egg issue?) which seems to change a bit: this time Karjakin and Caruana got the prestigious Bilbao invitation, maybe due to their success in Dortmund (but also elsewhere).

Anyway, one can prefer London over Dortmund, or earlier editions of Dortmund over the most recent one "going London-style". It's just odd to say that Dortmund 2012 "wasn't a supertournament" - and I rather like if some slightly lesser players are invited: this time Ponomariov, always the Aeroflot winner which may be 'risky' because you never know how he will perform. Bartel was struggling, the years before Le Quang Liem finished second twice, back in 2003 Bologan even won ahead of Kramnik and Anand.

Dortmund has one inherent disadvantage: live commentary (at the venue) is in German - because the local audience also matters, not just the international one. Russian events have live commentary in Russian (sometimes also in English which is an extra service); Russian chess fans could just as well complain that London lacked Russian live commentary!?

fernando's picture

fernando

6 months 1 week ago

What about Judit Simul with guests ? Any picture available ?
Did Vishy draw his simul versus the guests ?

Mark's picture

Mark

6 months 1 week ago

top 4 standing would have been different if Radjabov got invited (participated)

bronkenstein's picture

bronkenstein

6 months 1 week ago

Top 4 standings might also easily be different if you or me got invited ;)

Septimus's picture

Septimus

6 months 1 week ago

Maybe it is time to stop inviting Anand. He is not motivated and will probably drop out of the top 10 very soon. This would also prevent him from hiding his preparation.

chesshire cat's picture

chesshire cat

6 months 1 week ago

I doubt he is hiding prep. He is just not playing well.

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