Gukesh Heads Field In London As Classic Chess Event Returns In December

The London Chess Classic will return with its 13th edition this December in a field headed by Indian prodigy GM Gukesh Dommaraju. The event could potentially be decisive for the 18-year-old's hunt for a Candidates spot.

The return of the flagship event was announced by IM Malcolm Pein's Chess in Schools and Communities on Thursday, just two weeks before the first move is scheduled to be made in central London on December 1.

The London Chess Classic returns to its traditional format with a 10-player round-robin for the first time since 2017. That event was won by GM Fabiano Caruana who edged out GM Ian Nepomniachtchi after a blitz playoff. In 2018 and 2019, the tournament was a four-player event serving as a final for the Grand Chess Tour. The Chess Classic returned in 2021 during the World Championship match in Dubai and featured a match between England and the Rest of the World.

The Field

While the 13th edition is weaker than most of the former editions, it's bound to attract plenty of interest anyway. In 2023, the event is back to the original format from 2009 in a field headed by Gukesh ahead of England's new number one, GM Nikita Vitiugov, who just made his debut for England in the ongoing European Team Championship in Montenegro after completing his transfer from Russia.

His teammates there will join him in London, such as the newly crowned World Senior Champion GM Michael Adams and England's former number-one GM Luke McShane. Britain's 14-year-old rising star and ChessKid Ambassador IM Shreyas Royal will also get his debut at this level, facing some of the world's top players in what will be a great learning experience for the youngster.

The field is completed by grandmasters who tend to lack invitations for high-level closed events but remain among the world's 100 top-ranked players: GM Amin Tabatabaei, GM Andrei Volokitin, GM Hans Niemann, GM Mateusz Bartel, and GM Jules Moussard.

Can Gukesh Qualify For The Candidates?

But likely all eyes will be on Gukesh, who is currently in the race for one of the last two spots in the prestigious Candidates tournament next year through his performance in the FIDE Circuit, which determines who gets a shot at challenging reigning World Champion GM Ding Liren.

GM Anish Giri, who will play in the Sinquefield Cup starting next week, is his main rival as circuit leader GM Fabiano Caruana already qualified through the FIDE World Cup. GM Wesley So also has a shot with a good finish in St. Louis.

"If neither of Wesley or Anish come out of St. Louis with higher scores than Giri has now, then Gukesh could take pole position by winning London," chess statistician Tai Pruce-Zimmerman tells Chess.com.

Pruce-Zimmerman maintains ChessNumbers on X/Twitter, an account dedicated to tracking statistics in top-level chess, and follows the Candidates race closely for Chess.com.

"And even if winning London doesn't get him into first, it might close the gap enough for him to be in more realistic striking distance at the World Rapids," he says, adding: "Now if London had gotten one or both of Erigaisi/Abdusattorov, then it would have had way more potential to influence the Candidates."

If Gukesh wins in London, he will get around 17.7 points, while he needs 17.03 to catch Giri's current mark. Pruce-Zimmerman says Giri likely needs to finish within the top-five in the Sinquefield Cup to make London irrelevant.

Pein: Delighted to stage a 13th edition

The tournament is organized by England's Mister Chess, IM Malcolm Pein, perhaps the most influential figures in British chess for more than three decades. Pein tells Chess.com that he is "delighted" to have the tournament back following the announcement of the £1 million ($1.25 million) boost to fund the English Chess Federation (ECF).

"It's a great opportunity for English chess," Pein says, and added: "I’m just really chuffed we’ve been able to put it together in a short time frame. It’s a great field full of players who like fighting chess."

"My original idea was to have a tournament that would impact on Candidates qualification and invite some players who were in contention in the FIDE Circuit,"

He says that his plans had to change due to who reached the final of the Champions Chess Tour in Toronto. "My plans were thrown into some disarray, but having Gukesh in the lineup has proved ideal."

On the decision to include Royal in the event, Pein says:

"After his tremendous performance at the FIDE Grand Swiss, I thought that Shreyas Royal deserved another high-level outing. I consulted with his trainers, and of course with his father, before inviting him and this is another excellent opportunity for him to develop as a player and possibly score his final GM result as well as gain some rating points."

The London Chess Classic takes place from December 1 to 10, with a rest day on December 6. The first prize is £15,000 (around $18,600). The event will be played with a time control of 40 moves in 90 minutes plus 30 minutes for the remainder of the game, with a 30-second increment from move one. Due to lack of funds there is no large venue like in previous years, so there will be no facilities for the public.

[Editor's note: Updated on November 18 with comments from Pein]