Alireza cameos at the London Chess Classic
The English flagship tournament made its return last year after a hiatus, providing the current World Chess Championship Challenger Gukesh D an opportunity to qualify for the Candidates 2024. The tournament continued with its newest 2024 Edition, also bringing a new exciting ‘Super Blitz’ tournament!
The XTX Market London Chess Classic Festival took place from Nov 29 to Dec 8 at the Emirates Stadium, London. The event featured various section – Elite, Masters, and Super Blitz being the most notable ones.
Elite
The Elite section had a strong 8-player field consisting of some of the top players of England and the rest of the world. The tournament saw an All-English podium with Gawain Jones winning the tournament with 5/8 followed by the English Legend Michael Adams and Nikita Vitiugov taking the 2nd and 3rd place on tiebreak respectively. It was a rather forgettable event for the young English Grandmaster Shreyas Royal who scored only 1/8.
Super Blitz
The all-new Blitz tournament featured 32 players including 8 players in the Elite section, 20 invitees and 4 qualifiers from the Super Blitz Qualifier tournaments. The wildcards included the French Super GMs Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave! Alireza Firouzja proved why he is World No. 2 in Blitz, convincingly winning the Group Stage and the Finals with a full-point lead.
Raunak Sadhwani was victorious in the Masters section which was a 9-Round Open Swiss. 56-year old Ilya Smirin tied with Raunak Sadhwani and finished #2 overall on tiebreak.
Follow the results of XTX Market London Chess Classic Festival here
