London Chess Classic Rapid Starts Today
Today the main event of the 5th London Chess Classic starts: the Super Sixteen Rapid. The participants are Vladimir Kramnik, Fabiano Caruana, Vishy Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, Boris Gelfand, Mickey Adams, Peter Svidler, Luke McShane, Judit Polgar, Nigel Short, Matthew Sadler, David Howell, Gawain Jones, Jonathan Rowson and two qualifiers from the FIDE Open: Emil Sutovsky and Andrei Istratescu.
The rapid tournament will feature a 16-player field split into four groups, with the top two from each group qualifying for quarter final knockout stages. Scoring will be 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss. The total prize fund on offer will be €150,000 - the full breakdown being: 1st €50,000; 2nd €25,000; 3rd-4th €12,500; 5th-8th €6,250; 9th-16th €3,125. The groups are divided as follows:
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| Luke McShane | Vladimir Kramnik | Boris Gelfand | Nigel Short |
| Andrei Istratescu | Jonathan Rowson | Gawain Jones | Fabiano Caruana |
| Michael Adams | Matthew Sadler | Hikaru Nakamura | Emil Sutovsky |
| Vishy Anand | Peter Svidler | Judit Polgar | David Howell |
Emil Sutovsky and Andrei Istratescu were the highest rated players who were on 4/4 in the FIDE Open. Sutovsky was the first two qualify by winning his game in the 4th round:
Andrei Istratescu followed later, with the following win:
The rapid event starts today, but the GMs warmed up on Tuesday in the Pro-Celebrity Challenge, held at the Olympia Auditorium. Stars of TV, music and sports teamed up with the GMs and played ten-minute games which were broadcast live online with commentary by Lawrence Trent and Malcolm Pein. Each winning team received £5000 for their favourite charity.
The celebrities: singer & bassist Shingai Shoniwa, TV personality Alex Zane, hip-hop artist Lethal Bizzle & football legend Edgar Davids
The video of the Pro Celebrity Challenge
All photos © Ray Morris-Hill courtesy of the London Chess Classic
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097
