London Classic | 30 November 2017

The London Classic gets underway this weekend in Olympia. The line-up is formidable, including the world champion Magnus Carlsen, his predecessor Viswanathan Anand, and Sergei Karjakin, who challenged Carlsen for the title last year. The remaining contestants are as follows: Lev Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Michael Adams.
 
Carlsen comes fresh from his triumph in St Louis against the elite Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren. In a mixture of fast-play formats Carlsen triumphed by the overall score of 67-25, winning the match with 13 rounds to spare. Carlsen is of course the hot favourite to win in London, joining those illustrious names who have won major events in the capital including Adolf Anderssen, Emanuel Lasker, José Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine and of course, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. (There is also the enticing possibility that next year’s World Championship match will see Carlsen defending his title in London.