Chess: Carlsen comes to town with tantalising tests for London Classic Super Rapid

The Norwegian world No 1 will be among 500 competitors in the 10-round contest of 15-minute games

Magnus Carlsen makes a very rare appearance in an open tournament on 5-6 December when the Norwegian, who has topped the world rankings for 15 successive years, competes in the 10-round Super Rapid at the XTX Markets London Classic. The venue is the Novotel West at Hammersmith and the time limit is 15 minutes per player for the entire game, plus a 10 seconds increment for each move.

In 2025, 267 players entered the Super Rapid. On Monday, when Carlsen’s participation was announced, the entry doubled in just 12 hours and is now close to 400. The capacity is 500 and Alex Holowczak, the Chief Arbiter, expects that figure to be reached this weekend or early next week. His advice to anyone contemplating entry is to do so as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. The link to the entry form is here.

All who enter will be able to say that they competed in the same over-the-board tournament as Carlsen, but only one player can be directly paired with him in the first round. Who will it be? The Super Rapid will follow the normal pairing system of top half against bottom half and the break between the two halves is likely to occur in the low 1800s rating range.

Carlsen will be the favourite, but the tournament arithmetic leaves him no room for error. Given the huge numbers, a 9.5/10 score could be needed for outright victory, while a single defeat could spell curtains. There are several other competitors – Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Anish Giri, and Levon Aronian – who have beaten Carlsen in the past. There is also a strong entry of English juniors, for any of whom a pairing with Carlsen would be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Carlsen has played several times previously in the London Classic main event and has won it a record four times, in 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2015. The world No 1 has entered the Super Rapid to provide a warm up before he defends his World Rapid and World Blitz titles in Istanbul at the end of December. He is currently competing in Budapest in the pilot for the new Total World Championship, a mix of fast classic, rapid and blitz.

Tuesday was the first day of action in Hungary and Carlsen was the winner of a blitz tournament which decided tie-breaks in the main event. His very first game set the pattern for a dominant performance as he outplayed Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda in a theoretical Dragon Sicilian. However, in his first pair of fast classical games Carlsen drew twice with Giri, the world No 11. In his next pairing he drew twice, once from a lost position, against Abhimanyu Mishra, who holds the record for the youngest ever grandmaster, so that with only a 50% score after four rounds (of 10) Carlsen has work to do to qualify for the semi-finals.

England’s GM Keith Arkell, 65, the world’s leading expert on the theoretically drawn endgame of rook and bishop against rook, which he has won 47 times in as many attempts, and who is also the oldest player ever to complete 100 successive Fide-rated games without defeat, is battling for the gold medal in the World Senior 65+ Championship in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia.

Arkell, who has raised around £3,000 via GoFundMe towards his hotel and travel costs, won his first four games, but then drew with his old rival GM Zurab Sturua and also drew his next two while Sturua edged half a point ahead.

In round eight Arkell scored a key victory from an equal endgame against Colombia’s Alonso Zapata. If Zapata’s name sounds familiar, it is because the grandmaster from Bogotá famously defeated the Indian legend Vishy Anand at Biel 1988 in just six moves.

Arkell suffered a costly defeat in round nine when he was beaten in a rook endgame by the Israeli IM Alexander Mikhalevski, while Stutua won and took a clear lead. Gold now looks out of reach for Arkell, although he can still hope for a medal.

Scores after nine rounds (of 11): Sturura 7.5, six players on 7, Arkell and five others on 6.5. The remaining two rounds on Friday and Saturday afternoons can be followed on lichess.

4050: 1 Nf7++ Kg8 2 Qh8+! Nxh8 3 Nh6 mate. An unusual setting for a smothered mate. Not 1 Bxg6?? Qxf1 mate.