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Amber 2009: Aronian with a flying start
15.03.2009 – Last year Levon Aronian won the blindfold and rapid spectacle in Nice by 2½ points. This year he has started with a 2-0 score – against his first opponent, Vassily Ivanchuk. The Amber tournament is being staged in the Palais de la Mediterranée in Nice and carries a prize fund of € 216,000. As a special service we bring you, this year and with pleasure, special photo coverage by John Nunn. |
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Amber R2: Morozevich joins Aronian in the overall lead
16.03.2009 – Chinese GM Wang Yue has in the past week travelled from Linares to Beijing to Nice – not such a good idea when you are facing 2700+ opposition in your events. Russian GM Alexander Morozevich beat him with white in the blind chess game and completely outplayed him in the rapid. Morozevich joins Levon Aronian who today made Peter Leko an unexpected present. Photos by John Nunn. |
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Amber R4: Kramnik goes into the lead
17.03.2009 – In Round 4 of the 18th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament Vladimir Kramnik defeated the luckless Wang Yue 2-0 to take the sole lead in the overall scores. He achieved this mainly with a fine 3.5/4 performance in the blindfold section. In second place are last year's winner Levon Aronian and Alexander Morozevich, who won Amber in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Report after round four. |
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Amber 2009: Aronian takes the lead, Anand and Kramnik follow
20.03.2009 – Levon Aronian, last year's winner, beat the two "kids", Magnus Carlsen in round five and Sergey Karkjakin in round six, each time with 1½–½ point. Vishy Anand scored a 2-0 victory over Teimour Radjabov to catch Kramnik in second place. Carlsen and Morozevich follow half a point behind. We bring you new impressions from Nice by our illustrious photo reporter GM Dr John Nunn. |
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Amber 2009: Anand in the lead after eight rounds
23.03.2009 – In round seven of the Blindfold and Rapid Tournament World Champion Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik overtook Levon Aronian to take the shared lead. Magnus Carlsen had no mercy with out-of-form Wang Yue, winning 2-0 and moved up to third place. In the key encounter of round eight Anand defeated Kramnik to take the sole lead, ahead of Aronian and Carlsen. New pictures by John Nunn. |
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Amber 2009: Aronian breaks away as Carlsen and Anand falter
25.03.2009 – In a dramatic penultimate round all (!) the blindfold games were decided – though many by simple blunders that occur when you do not have the pieces in front of you. Anand dropped a queen in one, and Magnus Carlsen played as if in a stupor. Only Lev Aronian won his match to go into the clear lead by a full point. Big pictorial report with an Europe Echecs video interview with Veselin Topalov. |
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Amber 2009: Aronian and Carlsen catch Anand
25.03.2009 – After their free day on Monday it was back to work in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament. The ‘prologue’ to the next World Championship between Anand and Topalov ended in a tie, while Aronian and Carlsen won their matches to to draw level with Anand. Report with recreational pictures by John Nunn, video impressions by Europe Echecs and a video interview with Vishy Anand |
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Aronian wins Amber for a second time in a row
26.03.2009 – Looks like he is pretty good at the blindfold/rapid thing. Armenian GM Levon Aronian won the 18th Amber Tournament, after winning the 17th edition last year. Two draws against Veselin Topalov secured the half-point overall victory. Equal second were Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, with Magnus Carlsen half a point behind. Pictures by John Nunn in our final report. |
