Fundraising at the London Chess Classic
While the 2025 XTX Markets London Chess Classic will be long remembered for the sparking chess played by our competitors and for the four amazing school days attended by 800 primary school children, the event also has an important fundraising role. CSC is a charity and is only able to carry out its work thanks to the generosity of its many supporters: corporations, trusts and funds, and many individual donors. These grants and donations allow us to teach in over 370 schools every week, to support many more with equipment and training, and to run chess clubs in many libraries, prisons, hospitals and community settings across the country.
On Wednesday 3rd December, the ProBiz Cup took place at London Novotel West in Hammersmith. This unique event pairs our elite grandmasters with amateur players who are also donors to the charity. Each team has one hour to discuss tactics and then the games begin. The players make alternative moves, with conferring being restricted to two 1-minute time-outs each game. The competition is fierce - players have even been known to come to the event armed with pages of opening preparation! This year, the games were incredibly close, with the teams of Abhimanhyu Mishra / Bodhana Sivanandan, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov / Rajko Vujatovic finishing tied after three rounds. The tie-break was a blitz game between the amateurs, won by Bodhana after a tense struggle. A huge amount of fun was had by all, and our amateurs all left with some new ideas to try out from their grandmaster team-mates.
A few days later, over 200 supporters of CSC gathered at the Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair for the gala closing dinner of the London Chess Classic. As well as some fine food and wine, they were treated to a blitz chess display by Alireza Firouzja (playing blindfold) and IM Ali Mortazavi (a hard-fought draw), a lively charity auction, and a review of the charity’s activities in 2025. After Andy Murray visited our tournament at the Emirates, we were delighted to welcome Premier League footballer Borna Sosa to our dinner, who demonstrated some very respectable chess skills in the inevitable blitz games that followed.
