London Chess Classic
A major feature of the tournament was the use of a different scoring system, sometimes referred to as "Bilbao Rules"; players earn three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss.
"Sofia Rules" also applied, whereby the players could not agree a draw without the arbiter's permission, only to be given when there was deemed to be no purposeful play left in the position.
The main pre-tournament public relations event comprised a blindfold display at the London Eye between Nigel Short and Luke McShane.
The prize fund was substantially increased from the previous year and world champion Viswanathan Anand replaced Ni Hua in the list of participants.
Coupled with the advances in rating of some of the competitors, the effect was to elevate the tournament's status to Category 21 on FIDE's scale, making it the strongest ever held in the United Kingdom.
Lawrence Trent, Stephen Gordon, Daniel King and Chris Ward formed the core of the commentary team, but there were numerous contributions from other distinguished players, including guests of honour, Viktor Korchnoi and Garry Kasparov.
The prize giving was once again held at Simpsons-in-the-Strand, Carlsen being presented with the trophy and a cheque for 50,000 Euros by his part-time trainer and mentor, Kasparov.
WIM Arlette Van Weersel of The Netherlands won the former with 8/9, while GMs Gawain Jones and Simon Williams (both England) shared victory in the Open with 7½/9.
Korchnoi gave two simultaneous displays during the event and evening lectures were provided by GMs Jacob Aagaard and Boris Avrukh.
With two extra rounds scheduled, play spanned two weekends and each day, one player sat out and joined the commentary team.
IM Dagnė Čiukšytė (2327) of England and WIM Guliskhan Nakhbayeva (2227) of Kazakhstan shared victory in the former with 7½/9, while Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta (2640) was outright winner of the Open with 8/9.
Other tournaments taking place during the festival included the double round robin Women's Invitational and nine-round FIDE Rated Open.
IM Dagnė Čiukšytė (2345) of England was the outright winner of the former with 7½/10, while Norway's Jon Ludvig Hammer (2612) triumphed in the Open with 7½/9.
The main tournament was a single round, all-play-all format, where the uneven colour split was decided in favour of the winners of the Elite Blitz contest (see 'Subsidiary events' below).
Guest appearances were made by former world champion Garry Kasparov, London Mayor Boris Johnson and Kenneth Rogoff, among others.
Online commentators included Nigel Short, Danny King, Lawrence Trent, Chris Ward and David Howell.
The Pro-Biz Cup event comprised 2-player teams (one professional chess player, partnered by a top business leader, taking alternate moves) in a knockout format.
Elite Blitz: Michael Adams, Hikaru Nakamura, Vladimir Kramnik 17/30, Anish Giri 16, Viswanathan Anand 10, Fabiano Caruana 9 (6 players, double round robin).
Super Rapidplay Open: Hikaru Nakamura 9½/10, Anish Giri 8½, Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Nigel Short, Aleksandr Lenderman, Eric Hansen, Daniel Naroditsky, Nicholas Pert, Alon Greenfeld, Simon Williams 8 ... (405 players).
FIDE Open: Kamil Dragun, Bai Jinshi 7½/9, Vladislav Tkachiev, Bartosz Socko, Aleksandr Lenderman, Alexandr Fier, Alon Greenfeld, Jacek Stopa 7 ... (211 players).
[11] Pro-Biz Cup: Anish Giri and Rajko Vujatovic (Bank of America, Merrill Lynch) defeated Vladimir Kramnik and Russell Picot (HSBC) in the final.
FIDE Open: Benjamin Bok 8/9, Evgeny Postny, Rinat Jumabayev, Eric Hansen, Jonathan Hawkins, Jahongir Vakhidov, Daniel Sadzikowski 7 ... (247 participants).
[13] Super Rapidplay Open: Luke McShane 9.5/10, Hrant Melkumyan 8.5, Aleksandr Lenderman, Eric Hansen, Nicholas Pert, Romain Édouard, Jon Ludvig Hammer, Sergey Grigoriants, Rinat Jumabayev, David Eggleston, Tamas Fodor Jr. 8 ... (368 participants).
Subsidiary events included: British Knockout Championship - Won by Michael Adams, defeating David Howell in the final by 6-4.
Promoted by former World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik, this newly publicized chess variant disallowed the castling move, in order to encourage attacking play against a more vulnerable King.
Invited grandmasters Boris Gelfand, Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Lagarde represented a Rest of the World team.
