The draw for the group stages of the London Chess Classic took place on Wednesday 4th December at Ravenscroft Primary School in Newham.
Pupils at the school conducted the draw in the presence of Malcolm Pein and deputy arbiter David Sedgwick.
The players were divided into four pools on the basis of their FIDE Rapidplay ratings, using Standard play ratings for players without Rapidplay Ratings.
Qualifier 1 will be the qualifier with the higher score from the first four rounds of the Open, or the qualifier with the higher rating if both have the same score.
One player from each pool was placed into each group and a subsidiary draw determined each player’s position within the group. The outcome was as follows:
Group A:
Luke McShane
Qualifier 1
Michael Adams
Vishy Anand
Group B:
Vladimir Kramnik
Jonathan Rowson
Matthew Sadler
Peter Svidler
Group C:
Boris Gelfand
Gawain Jones
Hikaru Nakamura
Judit Polgar
Group D:
Nigel Short
Fabiano Caruana
Qualifier 2
David Howell
Wednesday 11th December, Round 1:
14:00
Group A
Luke McShane – Vishy Anand, Qualifier 1 – Michael Adams
Group B
Vladimir Kramnik – Peter Svidler, Jonathan Rowson – Matthew Sadler
15:30
Group C
Boris Gelfand – Judit Polgar, Gawain Jones – Hikaru Nakamura
Group D
Nigel Short – David Howell, Fabiano Caruana – Qualifier 2