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London Chess Classic 2016
August 28, 2016
London Chess Classic, Dec. 9 to Dec. 18, 2016
Press Release
MICHAEL ADAMS GETS WILDCARD FOR LONDON CHESS CLASSIC 2016
The 10th and last player to join the line-up of the 8th London Chess Classic is none other than England’s number one, Michael Adams. The Cornishman has been the country’s leading player since 1999 and was once ranked number 4 in the world. Adams has consistently recorded outstanding performances and been a member of the world elite for the better part of 20 years. As recently as two weeks ago, Mickey was crowned British Champion in Bournemouth, outclassing the opposition and posting an impressive score of 10/11 that equaled the record set by Julian Hodgson in 1992. Other highlights of his career include reaching the final of the 2004 FIDE World Championship and winning the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in 2013. This will be Adams’ eighth participation in as many editions and we can be sure he will yet again be eager to please the home fans with his trademark manoeuvring style, which once caused Kasparov to nickname him “spiderman”. Malcolm Pein announcing the wildcard at the closing ceremony of the Sinquefield Cup

Below is the final line-up for the London Chess Classic, based on the August ratings. The field boasts a staggering 2782 rating average, which makes this a category 22 tournament.
1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave France 25 2819
2 Vladimir Kramnik Russia 41 2808
3 Fabiano Caruana USA 24 2807
4 Levon Aronian Armenia 33 2792
5 Hikaru Nakamura USA  28 2791 
6 Wesley So USA  22 2771 
7 Viswanathan Anand India 46 2770
8 Anish Giri Netherlands 22 2769
9 Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 41 2761
10 Michael Adams England 44 2727 
Seeing as the above list is based on the August ratings, the British Championship and Sinquefield Cup results are yet to be taken into account. Thanks to his incredible performance in Bournemouth, Adams added 11 points to his rating and is now up to world number 23 in the live list. Over in Saint Louis, Caruana leapfrogged Kramnik to move up to world number 3, while So, Anand and Topalov also gained some points thanks to their good results. Top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the lowest rated player in the field in 2015. After his excellent summer performances - winning Dortmund with a 1.5-point lead over the rest of the field and convincingly beating Svidler in Biel - it will be interesting to see how Maxime fares in London, where he only lost out to Magnus Carlsen in the final play-off last year. Apart from Levon Aronian and Vishy Anand, all London Chess Classic participants will be representing their respective countries at the Chess Olympiad, which starts in Baku in just ten days.
Fiona Steil-Antoni
Press Officer
See also:
https://www.chess.com/news/not-carls...ic-4537?page=2
_________
Online Comments
- I believe that if Carlsen were to participate he would win and get close to 2900 ELO FIDE ... Carlsen is a titan the gates of immortal Olympus next to Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Karpov and Kasparov ...!
- Adams is a super player, but he has his share of top tournaments. I would prefer to see Luke McShane or Gawain Jones instead
- McShane may not be available due to his work commitments (which might even exceed the quite generous prize money on offer here). I could see Gawain Jones getting a very low score against all top-12 players.
- Why Michael Adams?
Why didn't Chinese player get the wild card to replace Carlsen's position?
- Because the tournament is in London and unlike in Sinquefield Cup, there aren't any local players yet in the competition?
And I don't know why you are complaining. The Spider is always a good addition to the lineup.
- Excellent players to participate - look forward to following this tournament.
Interesting to see if MVL is having a peak or if he has consistently raised his play to this extremely strong level.
- It’s actually good that there is no Carlsen
Reposted September 23, 2016
August 28, 2016
London Chess Classic, Dec. 9 to Dec. 18, 2016
Press Release
MICHAEL ADAMS GETS WILDCARD FOR LONDON CHESS CLASSIC 2016
The 10th and last player to join the line-up of the 8th London Chess Classic is none other than England’s number one, Michael Adams. The Cornishman has been the country’s leading player since 1999 and was once ranked number 4 in the world. Adams has consistently recorded outstanding performances and been a member of the world elite for the better part of 20 years. As recently as two weeks ago, Mickey was crowned British Champion in Bournemouth, outclassing the opposition and posting an impressive score of 10/11 that equaled the record set by Julian Hodgson in 1992. Other highlights of his career include reaching the final of the 2004 FIDE World Championship and winning the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in 2013. This will be Adams’ eighth participation in as many editions and we can be sure he will yet again be eager to please the home fans with his trademark manoeuvring style, which once caused Kasparov to nickname him “spiderman”. Malcolm Pein announcing the wildcard at the closing ceremony of the Sinquefield Cup

Below is the final line-up for the London Chess Classic, based on the August ratings. The field boasts a staggering 2782 rating average, which makes this a category 22 tournament.
1 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave France 25 2819
2 Vladimir Kramnik Russia 41 2808
3 Fabiano Caruana USA 24 2807
4 Levon Aronian Armenia 33 2792
5 Hikaru Nakamura USA  28 2791 
6 Wesley So USA  22 2771 
7 Viswanathan Anand India 46 2770
8 Anish Giri Netherlands 22 2769
9 Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 41 2761
10 Michael Adams England 44 2727 
Seeing as the above list is based on the August ratings, the British Championship and Sinquefield Cup results are yet to be taken into account. Thanks to his incredible performance in Bournemouth, Adams added 11 points to his rating and is now up to world number 23 in the live list. Over in Saint Louis, Caruana leapfrogged Kramnik to move up to world number 3, while So, Anand and Topalov also gained some points thanks to their good results. Top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the lowest rated player in the field in 2015. After his excellent summer performances - winning Dortmund with a 1.5-point lead over the rest of the field and convincingly beating Svidler in Biel - it will be interesting to see how Maxime fares in London, where he only lost out to Magnus Carlsen in the final play-off last year. Apart from Levon Aronian and Vishy Anand, all London Chess Classic participants will be representing their respective countries at the Chess Olympiad, which starts in Baku in just ten days.
Fiona Steil-Antoni
Press Officer
See also:
https://www.chess.com/news/not-carls...ic-4537?page=2
_________
Online Comments
- I believe that if Carlsen were to participate he would win and get close to 2900 ELO FIDE ... Carlsen is a titan the gates of immortal Olympus next to Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Karpov and Kasparov ...!
- Adams is a super player, but he has his share of top tournaments. I would prefer to see Luke McShane or Gawain Jones instead
- McShane may not be available due to his work commitments (which might even exceed the quite generous prize money on offer here). I could see Gawain Jones getting a very low score against all top-12 players.
- Why Michael Adams?
Why didn't Chinese player get the wild card to replace Carlsen's position?
- Because the tournament is in London and unlike in Sinquefield Cup, there aren't any local players yet in the competition?
And I don't know why you are complaining. The Spider is always a good addition to the lineup.
- Excellent players to participate - look forward to following this tournament.
Interesting to see if MVL is having a peak or if he has consistently raised his play to this extremely strong level.
- It’s actually good that there is no Carlsen
Reposted September 23, 2016
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