Head Office 44 Baker Street, London W1U 7RT Tel: 020 7935 3445 Email: [email protected] www.chessinschools.co.uk CSC on Breakfast TV: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13343943

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, 6th September

CARUANA, GELFAND, SVIDLER AND POLGAR SIGN UP TO PLAY IN 5TH LONDON CLASSIC

Chess in Schools and Communities is delighted to announce that another four international stars, , , and Judit Polgar have accepted their invitation to play in the 5th London to be staged at the Olympia Conference Centre in Kensington, running from Saturday 7th December to Sunday 15th December.

Fabiano Caruana, 21, is the Miami-born, -raised former who beat ’s record of becoming the youngest American . He holds both Italian and American citizenship, and plays under the Italian tricolour. In the last year or so, Caruana has burst onto the elite stage with some superb results. Currently, he is ranked World number five on the September 2013 FIDE rating list.

Boris Gelfand, 45, is the -born Israeli grandmaster who, nearly a quarter-century ago, became a World Top 10 player and qualified for a number of World Championship Candidates events. But just when everyone thought his best days were behind him, he made a dramatic comeback to win the Candidates to challenge Vishy Anand in last year’s World Championship match, where he lost in the play-offs. And his Indian summer continues: this year, he tied for first in the in and St. Petersburg followed by clear first at the in .

Peter Svidler, 36, is the erudite and popular St. Petersburg grandmaster, former World Cup winner, and multi-time Candidates qualifier with a record-breaking six Russian championship titles to his name. But he’s not your stereotypical Russian grandmaster, because Svidler is a big cricketing fan who owns a complete set of the cricketer’s almanack Wisden, and once had a letter read out by Henry Blofeld on the BBC’s Test Match Special.

Company Number: 7017640 | UK Charity Number: 1133120 Head Office 44 Baker Street, London W1U 7RT Tel: 020 7935 3445 Email: [email protected] www.chessinschools.co.uk CSC on Breakfast TV: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13343943

Judit Polgar, 37, from , Hungary is a phenomenon in the game. At the age of 15, she broke Bobby Fischer’s near 30-year record for becoming the youngest Grandmaster. Polgar is the best woman player of all time and the only woman currently in the world’s Top 100. At her peak she was in the Top 10 and would regularly do battle in Super GM tournaments with the likes of Kasparov, Karpov and Anand.

Caruana, Gelfand, Svidler and Polgar now join World Champion Vishy Anand, recent World Cup winner and the US No.1, to have confirmed they will play in the 5th . The rest of the 16-player field will be announced early next week.

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Official tournament website: www.londonchessclassic.com All tournament related enquiries: [email protected]

Chess in Schools and Communities is a charity established four years ago with the aim of introducing chess into primary schools, with particular emphasis on areas of economic disadvantage. The charity already delivers chess to over 200 schools in 38 boroughs across England and Wales, teaching chess as a classroom subject. Participating schools receive chess sets, software, training for teachers and weekly lessons from a CSC chess tutor. This innovative approach was recognised with an award from the Sports and Recreation Alliance.

Earlier this year, the charity was also awarded a major grant of £689,150 from the Education Endowment Foundation to research the effect of teaching chess to children.

Company Number: 7017640 | UK Charity Number: 1133120