2018 London Chess Classic

Join us for a very special 10th London Chess Classic from December 11-17, 2018.

The exciting finale of the Grand Chess Tour being fought out at the London Chess Classic, in a knockout format for the first time and with $300,000 at stake.

The semi-final battles, which will feature the 4 top players from the Grand Chess Tour qualifying events in Paris, Leuven and St. Louis, will be hosted by the pioneering artificial intelligence company, DeepMind, at Google’s London headquarters. Then the action moves to the London Chess Classic’s traditional venue, Kensington Olympia, for the final.

DATES December 11 – 17, 2018
LOCATION Google's London Headquarters and Kensington Olympia
FORMAT 4-Player Knockout
PRIZE FUND $300, 000
PHOTOS For event photos,   visit our Flickr page
TICKETS https: //tickets.londonchessclassic.com
Event Page https://www.londonchessclassic.com

 

The semi-finals will take place at the Head Office of Google UK (Six Pancras Square, Kings Cross, London N1C 4AG, UK) and entrance to these games will be by invitation only. The finals will take place at The Olympia Conference Centre (Hammersmith Rd, Hammersmith, London W14 8UX, UK) and members of the public will be able to purchase tickets to attend as spectators.

Semi-Final pairings
Semi-Final 1

Fabiano Caruana

Hikaru Nakamura

Semi-Final 2

Levon Aronian

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

 

Schedule of Events

DATE TIME* EVENT VENUE
December 11 14.00 Semi-Finals Classic Game 1 Google Head Office
December 12 14.00 Semi-Finals Classic Game 2 Google Head Office
December 13 14.00 Semi-Finals Rapid & Blitz & Playoffs (If Required) Google Head Office
  14.00 Rapid Game 1  
  15.30 Rapid Game 2  
  17.00 Blitz Game 1  
  17.30 Blitz Game 2  
  18.00 Blitz Game 3  
  18.30 Blitz Game 4  
  19.15 Rapid Playoff Game 1 (if required)  
  20.00 Rapid Playoff Game 2 (if required)  
  20.45 Armageddon Playoff Game (if required)  
December 14   Rest Day N/A
December 15 14.00 Finals Classic Game 1 London Olympia
December 16 14.00 Finals Classic Game 2 London Olympia
December 17 14.00 Finals Rapid & Blitz, Playoffs (If Required), and
Closing Presentation
London Olympia
  14.00 Rapid Game 1  
  15.30 Rapid Game 2  
  17.00 Blitz Game 1  
  17.30 Blitz Game 2  
  18.00 Blitz Game 3  
  18.30 Blitz Game 4  
  19.15 Rapid Playoff Game 1 (if required)  
  20.00 Rapid Playoff Game 2 (if required)  
  20.45 Armageddon Playoff Game (if required)  

 

Point Breakdown

Points are allocated to each game within the respective matches as follows:

  • 6 points for a win, 3 points for a draw and 0 points for a loss in the 2 Classic games.
  • 4 points for a win, 2 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss in the 2 Rapid games; and
  • 2 point for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss in the 4 Blitz games.


Prize Fund

Place PRIZE
1st $ 120, 000
2nd $ 80, 000
3rd $ 60, 000
4th $ 40, 000
Total Prize Fund $300, 000

 

Regulations

Regulations for the 2018 GCT Finals

 

Arbiters

The Chief Arbiter is IA Anastasia Sorokina and the Deputy Chief Arbiter is IA Laurent Freyd. They will also officiate at the Pro-Biz tournament.