The organizers of the London Chess Classic announced 8 of the 10 participants for the 2026 Masters event. The tournament will take place from November 24 to December 7 at the London Novotel West in Hammersmith, London.

Masters participants:

  • 🇮🇳 Nihal Sarin
  • 🇺🇿 Nodirbek Abdusattorov
  • 🇺🇸 Levon Aronian
  • 🇺🇸 Andy Woodward
  • 🇺🇦 Ihor Samunenkov
  • 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Luke McShane
  • 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Gawain Maroroa Jones
  • 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Michael Adams

The event features a 90+30 time control for the first 40 moves and 30+30 for the rest of the game over one Round-Robin between 10 players. In case of ties for first place, the winner will be determined by Tiebreaks.

The London Chess Classic is an annual international chess event held in London since 2009. The event is organized by the charity Chess in Schools and Communities and sponsored by the algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets. The 2025 edition of the event was won by Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

Credit: Lennart Ootes