9th London Chess Classic: ECF Book of the Year 2017

Another of my duties in London this year was to help present the award for the English Chess Federation Book of the Year.

My two fellow panellists - Ray Edwards and Julian Farrand - were also at Olympia but unfortunately Julian had to leave before the official presentation.

The winning book this year was Timman's Titans and our review can be found here.

The pictures in this report are both © Lennart Ootes (the official photographer of the 2017 London Chess Classic) and lots more from the various Classic events can be found here.

Jan Timman was not available on the day but we were able to present the award to Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam (second left) and Allard Hoogland (far right), both of Timman's Titans publisher New in Chess.

Picture © Lennart Ootes

Picture © Lennart Ootes

9th London Chess Classic: Teesside On Form

Following our expedition to see Wicked, our players were definitely in the mood to defy gravity during the chess tournament.

The children (and their parents!) enjoyed two lots of coaching sessions before the tournament began.

First of all CSC tutor Jerzy Dybowski showed everyone some very useful tips and then he performed a simultaneous display. 

Jerzy, who works with our Teesside team every year at the Classic, praised the skills of our team and was an inspiration to our players.

Next it was time to head into the main auditorium for the Chris and Lawrence Show, in which the Grandmaster and International Master continued their famous shows, which always feature a little bit of everything but are mostly fun. 

IM Lawrence Trent, a world-renowned chess commentator in addition to being a presenter, author and, of course, very strong player, is already delighted to be famous (via this blog) on Teesside and he has an open invitation to come to our area for a simultaneous display, talk or anything he wants.

Tournament time! Our players were, by now, itching to get stuck into their serious games. They found themselves in the main playing hall with approximately 380 more juniors from a whole range of schools.

Everyone played well and the overall performance was fantastic. Alex won a silver medal and Matthew took bronze. Brilliant! The icing on the cake was still to come. The team won a trophy for finishing in third place! Even though we usually return to Teesside with medals, this was CSC Teesside's first-ever Classic trophy.

I still had one last surprise up my sleeve. Shortly before heading back to the auditorium to watch the elite players in action, I broke it to Alex that was going to make the ceremonial move for former world champion Vishy Anand against Sergey Karjakin.

In 2016, when Alex was in Y4, we spent some time each week talking about the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin. We wrote the latest scores on the board and discussed the match and the history of the championship.

I don't think Alex could have guessed that within a short period of time he would be on the stage in front of a worldwide audience making a move against Karjakin while Carlsen watched from another board.

We conclude this report with a gallery from our second great day.

Sam and Matthew are ready for the tournament

Alex on his way to earning a silver medal

Alice was determined to make a great score - and she did!

Benjamin - composed and ready for action, as always

Alex, receiving his medal from Grandmaster Chris Ward

Putting Westgarth and CSC Teesside firmly on the map

Back to the elite players. Anand is dreaming of someone coming to play a good opening move for him

Aronian vs. So

Enjoying the coaching

A pair of likely lads (possibly Under-18s) join the chess fun

Pleased to be in the auditorium

IM Trent at his entertaining best

Samuel's name on the big board

Go Samuel!

Tournament leader Caruana keeps a careful eye on Vachier-Lagrave

Alex meeting former world champion Vishy Anand...

...and making his opening move!

A very proud moment for us all

 More reports from the Classic will follow soon...

9th London Chess Classic: CSCTeesside Hit Town

World champions, wall-to-wall Grandmasters, training days, simultaneous displays and a whole range of other festival events...these things pale in comparison to the impact created when CSC Teesside hit town yesterday.

From the moment my heroes arrived at King's Cross, they trod a relentless path: Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square (not quite enough squares for a chessboard, unfortunately), The Mall, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Victoria...nowhere was safe.

The evening drew to a worthy, Wicked conclusion.

Today is the day CSC Teesside will play in the tournament at Olympia. A full report will surely follow...

Are we having fun? Yes we are!

9th London Chess Classic: First Blood Part II

Having drawn first blood in round four rather than his game, Fabiano extended his lead over the rest of the elite players with an exciting victory over former world champion Vishy Anand in round five.

It was clear from the start of the game that Caruana had aggressive intentions, as he started an early kingside attack and castled on the queenside.

Magnus Carlsen tried hard to convert his advantage to victory in the endgame but Wesley So's strong resistance was enough for the latter to hold the draw.

Full analysis of Caruana's dramatic win and all of the other games can be found over at the official London Chess Classic site.

Caruana now has a full point advantage over his nearest rivals. Today brings the second and final rest day for the Classic, after which we will see four more games over the last four days.

An advantage of a single point may not sound like much when there are still four rounds left to play but given the amount of draws so far this year it is clear to see the other players will need to come up with something special if they have intentions of trying to catch the leader.

9th London Chess Classic: Simultaneous Displays

Simultaneous displays by strong chess players are a great way to create interest and should be an essential part of every self-respecting festival of chess.

A month ago we enjoyed the company and chess skills of WFM Sarah Hegarty when she came to Teesside for an excellent simultaneous display, in which she played - and defeated - 20 eager young challengers.

This week at Olympia we have witnessed two of the giants of British chess taking on many players in simultaneous displays.

Grandmaster Jon Speelman was the first of the two stars to enter the arena and he successfully navigated potential difficulties to notch up a very high score on Monday evening.

Today saw Grandmaster John Nunn repeat GM Speelman's impressive feat against a typical range of ages and abilities so common to all such displays.

Here are some photos from both evenings.