Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament 2011

Aronian claims third Amber victory in farewell edition

Levon Aronian is the winner of the twentieth and final Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament. Following his earlier wins in 2008 and 2009 this is the third time the Armenian grandmaster claimed first prize.
Aronian also won the blindfold competition. The rapid competition was won by Magnus Carlsen.
The € 1,000 Game of the Day Prize was awarded to Boris Gelfand for his rapid win over Magnus Carlsen, which ended the Norwegian’s chances to fight for first place in the overall standings.

With a draw in his blindfold game against Sergey Karjakin, tournament leader Levon Aronian decided the fight for first place in his favour, as his last remaining rival, Magnus Carlsen lost his blindfold game to Boris Gelfand. After the opening Aronian was optimistic: ‘I thought it was all in my hands. I didn’t need Boris.’ After 26.Nc4 he felt he was close to winning, but he didn’t find the correct follow-up. In the endgame his advantage vanished, but soon he found out that the draw he reached was enough to clinch tournament victory.

Aronian felt that he also had had good winning chances in the rapid game, but again he had to settle for a draw. Obviously, he didn’t care too much, as tournament victory was already his.

Round 11 report courtesy of the official website

The Exchange Sacrifices on c3

In the mid-60s, the exchange sacrifice on c3 become very well-known aspect of intuitive positional play. The exchange sacrifice on c3/c6 square is an important strategic device and occurs most frequently in the Sicilian Dragon and the English Opening. The idea behind the sacrifice is to demolished the opponent's queen side pawn structure and to weaken his center, in particular the e4-pawn.

Aronian goes into last round with one-point lead over Carlsen

Classical games: Magnus Carlsen beat Alexander Grischuk 1 to 0, with 5 draws.
Including rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen beat Alexander Grischuk 6 to 5, with 8 draws.
Only rapid/exhibition games: Magnus Carlsen tied Alexander Grischuk 5 to 5, with 3 draws.

In the tenth and penultimate round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament Levon Aronian kept his one-point lead over Magnus Carlsen with a 1½-½ win over Veselin Topalov. Magnus Carlsen defeated Alexander Grischuk 1½-½.
With one round to go Aronian has already won the blindfold competition, while Carlsen cannot be caught anymore in the rapid standings.
The € 1,000 Game of the Day Prize was awarded to Magnus Carlsen for his rapid win over Alexander Grischuk.

‘Complicated, as Ivanchuk would say’, Alexander Grischuk joked after his blindfold game against Magnus Carlsen. The Russian played against a variation of the Queen’s Indian that he also plays himself as Black. In fact he paid his opponent a compliment when he said that Carlsen got a ‘slightly better version than normal’. The upshot was that Black had enough initiative to make a draw and that was exactly what happened.

In the rapid game Carlsen tore down Grischuk’s Najdorf or, as the Norwegian put it ‘Black was busted out of the opening’. And in more diplomatic terms: ‘He has long-term problems and no counterplay, which usually is a problem in the Sicilian.’ Carlsen converted his advantage and shortly before he was to be mated, Grischuk resigned. Carlsen was pleased that with this win he clinched the rapid competition, but for understandable reasons he was not too happy with the total harvest of the day. Things would have been different after all if Aronian had not won his blindfold game.

Round 10 report courtesy of the official website

Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament 2011

Photo's: (credits: Association Max Euwe)


Magnus Carlsen stormed into the hospitality lounge after he had lost the blindfold game against Vishy Anand. With quick movements he showed on a chess board that he had completely unnecessarily lost the ending, proving his point with variations. Of course he was right, but he had been lost earlier on. In the opening the Norwegian grandmaster went for the Grand Prix Attack against Anand’s Sicilian. According to Anand, White’s 8.d3 was a mistake, allowing him to exchange on c4, c3 and play 10…Bc6. He was happy with the ensuing middlegame, but called his 25…Qe7 a mistake, as it gave away most of his advantage because 26…Bxc4 can be answered by 27.Bxf6. Nevertheless things were going his way and on move 36 he could have won with both 36…e3+ or even 36…Rc1. Now Carlsen was indeed safe and with 43.Ra6 he could have made a draw. Instead he wanted to refine the idea and played 43.Rf6 first, missing Anand’s 43…Ra1+ which led to a winning position for Black.

Carlsen had his revenge with surprising ease in the rapid game. After the opening, a Ruy Lopez with 4.Qe2, he was slightly worse, but then, to quote Carlsen, Anand ‘began to drift’. Black took over after he could play 25…gxh3 and 27.Qg2. In fact the white position disintegrated at surprising speed and after 43 moves the World Champion had had enough.

http://www.amberchess20.com/RoundReport9.html

LIVE: Ivanchuk

Aronian live: 20th Amber

Watch the analysis of Levon Aronian vs Vishy Anand 20th Amber Round 8 Rapid match

Carlsen Bounces Back

Chess Combinations

g2 (g7) combinations

Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament 2011

Photo's: (credits: Association Max Euwe) http://www.amberchess20.com/pictures/dirk_jan/round8/index.html


Aronian and Carlsen way ahead of the pack

After eight rounds Levon Aronian remains the proud leader at the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament. The Armenian GM defeated World Champion Vishy Anand 1½-½. With three rounds to go Magnus Carlsen seems to be his only remaining challenger. The Norwegian GM follows at half-a-point’s distance after defeating Veselin Topalov 1½-½. In third place Vishy Anand and Vasily Ivanchuk are already three points behind. Aronian defended his lead in the blindfold competition. In the rapid competition Carlsen calls the shots, one point ahead of Aronian.
The € 1,000 Game of the Day Prize was awarded to Levon Aronian for his rapid win over Vishy Anand.

Although Aronian bag the prize of 1,000 euros for the game of the day over world champion Vishy Anand, and in my opinion this is the best game in round 8 Carlsen against Topalov



http://www.amberchess20.com/RoundReport8.html

Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament 2011

The blindfold game between Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik could not be viewed life by the Internet audience (so far on average around 45,000 unique visitors per day!) and that was a great pity as in line with their previous battles there was again a lot of drama. Kramnik played his trusted Petroff, but contrary to what normally happens, he ended up in a clearly worse position. The tables could have been turned after Carlsen’s questionable 44.Re4, which allowed Black to take on e4 and follow up with 45…Nf6. According to Kramnik this would have given him a position that was ‘winning or in any case very close to winning’. The reason he didn’t take on e4, was that he believed his rook was on d7 and that he only realized that it was on e7 when he tried to play his knight to e7 and the computer refused to accept that move. Next in a panicky reaction he tried to play the rook as quickly as possible and put it on b7. In the following manoeuvring phase Carlsen gradually outplayed him and obtained a winning position. In the final position Kramnik believed his rook was on b1 and tried to take the pawn on b7. When he realized that this was impossible he resigned. Coming out of the playing room Carlsen shrugged his shoulders and commented that he also would have found a winning plan if his opponent had remembered the position of his pieces.

In the rapid game Kramnik repeated the opening he had played against Giri, but Carlsen chose a different set-up. The Norwegian grandmaster was pleased with his position, reasoning that he would be fine if he obtained a Benoni-structure and it was for that reason that he didn’t want White to take on d5 with a piece. According to Carlsen, White’s 20.g4 was dubious and smelling his chance he decided ‘to go for it’ with 25…Rf8 and 26…f5. White’s 27.Qb7 was an expensive mistake. Kramnik had missed 28…Rxe3, which essentially decided the game. While his opponent sat thinking about his 31st move he resigned. Black’s has more than one option to continue successfully, 31…Nxg4 and 31…Rxb3 are just two of them.
http://www.amberchess20.com/RoundReport7.html



Game of the Day (Rapid) Round 7

Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament 2011

photo by www.chessbase.com


Alexander Grischuk and Levon Aronian had a sharp fight in their blindfold game. The tournament leader was unhappy about his move 17…Nf6, where he believed 17…Nb6 would have been better (as 18.Qxe7 is not good in possible 18…Nxd5 19.Qe4 Re8). In his calculations Aronian had missed 19.Ne5. He was happy that he had 20…Qe6 (‘not to lose on the spot’), but still his position would have been quite unpleasant if Grischuk had played 27.a5. Now the point was split after 31 moves.

Grischuk’s comment after he had inflicted Aronian’s first defeat in the rapid game was: "Finally something to be proud of since the first game, even if the game was decided by a blunder.’ The Russian grandmaster played a Benoni that was inspired by a game he played as White against Italy’s Daniele Vocaturo at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. After a tough fight Grischuk won that game, but that had nothing to do with the opening. Aronian said he vaguely remembered that game, but still he failed to find the right plan. The decisive mistake was 27.Bf1, where White should have played 27.Ra1. After Grischuk’s captures on c3 and a3 White was lost. Grischuk was happy for himself and his colleagues: ‘This was the last chance to bring back some tension in the tournament."


Game of the day (Rapid) Round 6