Chess in Schools and Communities is delighted to announce today that GM Vladimir Kramnik, the recent FIDE World Cup winner in Tromsø, Norway, has accepted his invitation to play in the 5th London Chess Classic to be staged at the Olympia Conference Centre in Kensington, running from Saturday 7th December to Sunday 15th December.
London has become a happy hunting ground for Kramnik. Not only has the former World Champion been a regular at the London Chess Classic, winning the 2011 edition, and runner-up twice (behind Magnus Carlsen, the World No.1, on both occasions), in 2009 and 2012, but in 2000, London was also the venue for his historic world title win over Garry Kasparov.
Earlier this week in Tromsø, Kramnik showed he’s still a major force in the game with his easy victory in the four-game FIDE World Cup final over the current Russian champion, Dmitry Andreikin; that will see both qualify for next year’s Candidates’ tournament.
And Kramnik’s overall performance in the World Cup, also saw the former World Champion once again reclaiming the World No. 3 spot in the September Fide rating list published this week.
Kramnik now joins World Champion Vishy Anand and the US No.1, Hikaru Nakamura as the the third player to have confirmed they will play in the 5th London Chess Classic. The rest of the 16-player Rapid field will be announced in the coming week.
