London Classic v The World On Twitter

Press Release: London Chess Classic 2011

The opening press conference took place at 14.00 UK time, 9.00am EST on Friday 2nd December in the Olympia Conference Centre.

Heading the line-up is the '2800 Club' which includes World Champion, Viswanathan Anand from India, Magnus Carlsen from Norway, Levon Aronian from Armenia and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik from Russia.

Completing the field are former US Champion Hikaru Nakamura, Michael Adams, Nigel Short and Britain's two most promising young grandmasters, Luke McShane and David Howell, who like Carlsen will be just 21 at the start of the tournament.

Following immediately after the press conference, the highest level game of chess ever played on Twitter launched the 3rd London Chess Classic at Olympia. All nine Classic players took it in turn to make moves against the 'Rest of the World' in a highly entertaining but short game.

Vishy Anand, organiser Malcolm Pein, and Magnus Carlsen

Mickey Adams, Lev Aronian and Vishy Anand

Vladimir Kramnik

Hikaru Nakamura and Nigel Short

Luke McShane

David Howell

All photos courtesy of Ray-Morris Hill for the official website.

UPDATE: A short video of the players during the game.