London Chess Classic 2024
by Matthew Wadsworth
The announcement that the London Chess Classic would be returning this year was a particularly welcome bit of news to the entire British chess community. After its inception in 2009 the tournament ran every year in early December until 2019, with a top-level round robin and multiple supporting events. Although London Classic events were held in 2021 and 2023, the 2024 edition was the first on a similar scale to the pre-Covid years.
This year’s Classic, sponsored by XTX Markets, was held at the Emirates Stadium, a truly remarkable place to play chess and a worthy successor to the Olympia Conference Centre in Kensington. From 29th November – 8th December there were no fewer than 12 separate events: the Elite round robin, the FIDE Masters and U2000 classical events, two rapidplays, four blitz qualifiers, the Super Blitz on 7th December, a blindfold exhibition on 8th December, and the Pro-Biz Cup held on the 4th December rest day. Alongside this were several simultaneous displays and other events – an incredible amount of chess packed into a short period of time!
My focus was on the FIDE Masters, in which I was playing as the 14th seed. The Masters was a particularly strong open, with 14 GMs and 16 IMs out of a field of 87. The event also came with a rating floor of 2000, which led to significant parity throughout the tournament and made title norms a lot more feasible. The English contingent was headed by new GM Ameet Ghasi and six other players above 2400, while the top seed was the Indian super-GM Raunak Sadhwani.
The first round of a big open is always a nervy affair – there are significant rating disparities on every board, which tends to create a lot of pressure on the more highly-rated player. I played White against Federico Rocco, and eventually won in a five-hour slog which culminated in the notorious rook, f- and h-pawn against rook endgame. I had forgotten the key winning technique and blundered away the win, only for Federico to immediately return the favour; these things tend to happen towards the end of long, tiring games. While most games in the first round went to form, there were a couple of upsets, most notably Jack Rudd, who won a fine game against GM Ilya Smirin on board 2.
The second and third rounds were played on the same day to accommodate the enforced rest day on 4th December, when the Emirates had to perform its more traditional role of hosting an Arsenal match (the game finished 2-0 against Manchester United). With problems on the Piccadilly Line, travel to the venue was slightly tougher than normal, making the 10 am start time even more awkward. I managed to win the morning game against the Chinese player Li Wenxiang, joining a total of 10 players on 2/2. The stand-out results in round 2 were IM Peter Roberson’s win over GM Martin Petrov and Cameron Goh’s win over IM Aaravamudhan Balaji, to put both players on 100%. In round 3 I was given a second Black against Sadhwani and had almost no time to prepare (although this was true for everyone). Luckily the opening passed without incident, and Sadhwani offered a draw after 17 moves in an equal position, which I was very happy to accept! Boards 2 and 3 also ended up in draws, while boards 4 and 5 were decisive. Both IM Marcus Harvey and Cameron eventually converted in rook endgames against Roberson and Vlad-Victor Barnaure respectively. This was a remarkable start for Cameron, who was almost the bottom seed and had won three games in a row against titled opposition; it was also notable for Marcus, who crossed the 2500 rating barrier with his third win.
The two remaining players on 100% faced each other in round 4, with Marcus eventually prevailing and becoming the clear leader. 3 players got to 3½/4 – Sadhwani, the Icelandic GM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson, and me. Sadhwani and Stefansson both beat GMs convincingly with Black, while I won a tense game against FM Borna Derakhshani. Borna had totally out-prepared me in a mainline Catalan before getting short on time and heading in the wrong direction at around move 25. Max Pert had the stand-out result of this round, holding Ameet to a draw on board 5. This came after back-to-back wins over Ims, and put him on 3/4.
At the top of the field the key pairings for round 5 were Harvey-Sadhwani on board 1 and Stefansson-Wadsworth on board 2. Marcus ended up drawing fairly easily within two hours, while Vignir beat me in a near-faultless game by him. This meant that we had two joint leaders going into round 6, the final round before the rest day. A group of 4 (all GMs) were half a point back on 4/5, while I was a further half point behind in a group of 16.
In round 6 the top board ended up drawn, but was significantly more combative than the previous day. Marcus was worse for much of the game, and eventually drew an exchange-down endgame that might have been winning with perfect technique. They were joined on 5/6 by Sadhwani, who won a nice game against GM Zhang Pengxiang on board 2. Eight players were half a point behind, with Jonah Willow the only non-GM. Frustratingly, I only drew after a 108-move game against FM Maciej Czopor in another highly instructive rook endgame: rook, e-, f- and g-pawn against rook, f- and h-pawn (a near-exact copy of Capablanca-Yates, 1931). I initially made good progress, but took too long to work out the winning plan, and eventually faltered on move 90. Looking further down the field, Jack Rudd won his second game against a GM (Jose Gonzalez Garcia), while Koby Kalavannan, Remy Rushbrooke and Supratit Banerjee also scored nice upset wins.
After a welcome rest day we returned to action on Thursday 5th December. I had Black against Koby, and converted in a long, messy game that kept my faint tournament and norm chances alive. Meanwhile, Sadhwani defeated Stefansson to go clear first – Marcus was not able to join him after losing to Smirin in a marathon 125-move game, in which Smirin converted two rooks and a pawn against queen. This put Smirin on 5½/7, where he was joined by Ameet and GM Justin Tan, both of whom defeated GM opposition.
Round 8 saw Ameet comfortably hold Sadhwani with Black on board 1, while Smirin won another long game against Justin on board 2, meaning that the top two seeds would be joint leaders of the section with a round to play. On board 3 I managed to defeat GM Zhang Pengxiang to keep my GM norm chances alive. It was one of the nicest games of my career, and I annotate it below.
Going into the game I knew that I needed 2/2 for the GM norm and at least 1½/2 to guarantee a place in the prizes; there was therefore no point in playing it safe. My opponent was the Chinese GM Zhang Pengxiang, a former Asian Champion with a peak rating of 2657.
Wadsworth, Matthew J (2461) - Zhang, Pengxiang (2567)
London Classic FIDE Masters London (8), 06.12.2024
1.Nf3 I decided to start with the Reti in order to maximise my flexibility against Zhang's preferred Slav and Grünfeld setups.
1...d5 2.g3 Nd7!? An interesting system which is gaining popularity. It came as a complete surprise, but I had faced it recently (against David Navara in the European Championship) and even played it myself a couple of times. Black's idea is to threaten e7–e5, which essentially forces White's third move if he wants to fight for an advantage.
3.d4 Nb6 Black hopes to develop the light-squared bishop and reach a Slav formation; his knight is awkwardly placed on b6, but it is not the end of the world.
4.a4 4.Nbd2 was what I played against Navara; although I drew the game, I was worse for almost the entire duration and had no desire to repeat. 4...Bf5 5.Nh4 e6 6.Nxf5 exf5 7.Bg2 c6 8.a4 a5 9.Nf3 Nf6= ½–½ Wadsworth, M (2461)-Navara, D (2674) EU-ch 24th Petrovac 2024 (4), and Black has already comfortably equalised.
4...a5 Black is more or less forced to play this, otherwise White will continue with a4–a5. Both the b5- and b4-squares are slightly weakened; only time will tell which side benefits more from this.
5.Nc3 The knight is a little more active on c3 than d2; White will usually be going for the e4-break rather than c4 in these structures, so blocking the c-pawn is not a huge deal.
5...Bf5 6.Nh4! It is important to not let Black's light-squared bishop settle outside the pawn chain.
6...Bg4 6...e6 7.Nxf5 exf5 8.Qd3!? is a concrete situation where I am happy to have put the knight on c3 rather than d2.
7.h3 Bh5 8.Ng2!
A key idea for this line, however weird it might look. The knight is going to f4 where it (almost) guarantees the win of the bishop pair.
8.g4 e6! is Black's idea, a counter-attack on the knight on h4.
8...f6?! A radical decision to make - Black saves his bishop, but compromises his pawn structure permanently.
8...e6 9.Nf4 Bg6: most games have gone in this direction, where 10.h4!? is an interesting novelty. These positions are still incredibly fresh, and there is room for experimentation very early in the game!
9.Nf4 Bf7 The other downside of Black's play is that the saved bishop is not exactly happy on f7.
10.Bg2 e6 11.0–0 11.e4: while castling was logical, opening the centre immediately was even stronger.
11...Bb4 11...f5 is suggested by the engine as a fairly desperate way to stop e2–e4. White should insist upon it with 12.f3!.
12.e4! 'When ahead in development, open up the centre' is one of the first things that we all learn in chess, and it applies very clearly here. Black is still multiple moves from castling, and is not prepared for immediate tactical operations.
12...Qd7 13.exd5 13.Qg4! is even stronger - Black does not have a good way to deal with the threat to g7.
13...exd5 14.h4
I was quite happy with this idea - Bh3 comes next to annoy the queen and dissuade queenside castling.
14...Ne7 15.Bh3 f5 16.Nb5! I was also really happy with this idea. My plan is to exchange off Black's bishop with c3, after which his dark squared weaknesses will become serious problems.
16...c6 16...0–0 17.c3 Bd6 18.Nxd6 Qxd6 19.b3. If Black allows me to execute my plan without interference White is totally dominant. Ba3 will come next, followed by bringing the major pieces to the e-file and the knight to the e5-outpost; 16...Nxa4 looks like it wins a pawn, but after 17.c3 Qxb5 18.cxb4 axb4 19.Re1 Black's position is hopeless despite the extra material.
17.c3 cxb5 18.cxb4 A very odd queenside pawn structure emerges, where Black can win a pawn in a couple of ways. My judgement during the game was that the dark-square pressure would outweigh the material, and I was glad that the engine backed me up after the fact!
18...bxa4 18...axb4 19.Bd2 is probably simplest, offering a transposition to the game with bxa4.
19.Bd2 axb4 20.Bxb4 0–0
Black finally gets castled and is a pawn up for the moment, but White is clearly having all the fun here.
21.Nd3 Aiming for the weak e5-square. The immediate Re1 was also good for White.
21...Nc4?! 21...Rfe8 22.Ne5 Qb5 23.Bxe7 Rxe7 24.Bxf5 was the sort of position I expected, where I get my pawn back with ongoing pressure.
22.Re1 Rfe8 23.b3! After the game Zhang said he missed this idea.
23...Nd6 23...axb3 24.Rxa8 Rxa8 25.Rxe7 is the point, winning a piece and the game.
24.Ne5 Qc7 25.Nxf7 Kxf7 26.bxa4 With equal material, two bishops versus two knights, and a black position riddled with weaknesses, I should be winning from here with best play. Nevertheless Black has plenty of tricks, and I have to be vigilant.
26...g6 27.Bxd6! Otherwise, Black may get a knight to e4, and possibly achieve some counterplay.
27...Qxd6 28.Qb3
28.Rb1 is more precise, aiming for a nice regrouping with Rb5 and Qb3 to maximise pressure on d5 and b7.
28...Kf8 29.Bg2 b6 30.Re5 Rad8 After some logical moves by both sides Black has had to go fully passive to hold onto the d5-pawn.
31.a5?! Probably my worst move of the game. I see why I played it in hindsight, but it was totally unnecessary.
31.Rb1 is a fairly obvious improvement - Black can't save the b6-pawn without dropping d5.
31...bxa5 32.Rxa5 f4!? A good attempt at complicating the position.
33.g4 Mainly aimed at taking control of the f5-square.
33...Nc6 33...Ra8 is the computer suggestion, after which Black does get serious drawing chances if White even lets up for a single move.
34.Raxd5 Nxd4? Just a miscalculation in time pressure.
34...Qb4 is best, but White should win after 35.Rxe8+ Rxe8 36.Qf3, and the extra pawn is less relevant than Black's very weak king.
35.Rxe8+ Rxe8 36.Qd1
This calm retreat wins the black knight by force, so Zhang resigned. A possible continuation would be 36...Ne2+ 37.Qxe2 Qxd5 38.Qxe8+ Kxe8 39.Bxd5, with a piece advantage in the endgame.
1–0
With a round to play we had two leaders on 6½/8, a group of four on 6/8 including myself, and a group of 5½/8 including Marcus. Both Marcus and I needed to win our final games to make a GM norm, and unfortunately neither of us were able to. I eventually drew a very messy game against Ameet in which we were both winning at different points, before Ameet held a pawn-down rook ending with excellent technique. Marcus had a nice position against Zhang, but perhaps overpressed a bit, got into a bad ending and lost in 49 moves. I was frustrated for both of us, but we both played well, and I’m sure we will have more norm opportunities in the future. In happier news, Maciej Czopor and Li Wenxiang made IM norms comfortably; they both could have scored half a point less and still met all the requirements. In Maciej’s case, this confirms the IM title after a long wait for the third norm; it is highly deserved after he went unbeaten throughout the tournament.
With regard to the final tournament standings, the top five boards all ended in draws, leaving the standings essentially unchanged compared with a round earlier. Sadhwani and Smirin shared 1st = with 7/9, and 3rd= was shared between Ghasi, Stefansson, Korneev and me. IM Marsel Efroimski of Israel won the women’s prize with 5½/9, while the rating prizes were won by Maciej (2300-2399), Jack Rudd (2200-2299), and Li Wenxiang (2000-2199).
Finally, touching on some of the other tournaments: Gawain Jones was victorious in the Elite, finishing a clear point ahead of fellow Englishmen Michael Adams and Nikita Vitiugov, who took second and third place on tiebreak. This capped off a year in which Gawain became English Champion in June, British Champion in July, and scored 3/3 in the final 4NCL weekend with wins over Adams and Shirov. His total score in classical chess on English soil this year was 21/26, with no losses and a rating performance of 2748, which must rank as one of the very best years an English player has ever had. Gawain also performed well in the Super Blitz event, finishing 3rd behind the French duo of Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The U2000 event, which ran on the same schedule as the FIDE Masters, was won by Gautam Jain with a round to spare, while second place was shared between Ethan Sanitt and Oleg Verbytski. The two rapidplay events, held on the first weekend, were shared between IM Yichen Han, FM David Haydon and Oleg Pankov on the Saturday, and between Han, Haydon, Lorenzo Lucchi, Jaden Jermy and Dildarav Lishoy on the Sunday. Meanwhile the four blitz qualifiers were won by GMs Jonathan Parker and William Watson, IM Joe McPhillips and David Haydon, who placed first in three events alongside playing in the FIDE Masters!
Overall, I was glad to be a part of the London Chess Classic this year, and huge thanks should go both to Malcolm Pein for organising the event and to the army of arbiters and volunteers who made things run so smoothly. I am looking forward to the event returning next December, and I’m sure I’m not the only one!