by Jack Peters, IM
Levon Aronian won the Amber tournament in Nice, France, for the second consecutive year. The Armenian grandmaster, ranked 11th in the world, led a field that included eight of the world's nine highest-rated stars.
The unique Amber tournament requires two 25-minute games against each opponent. In one, both players play a 21st century form of blindfold chess, without those cumbersome blindfolds. Each player briefly sees the algebraic notation for his opponent's move on his computer monitor, but only the audience sees the position. The prize fund of 216,000 Euros (about $293,000) placates those worried about the occasional embarrassing blunder.
Aronian tied for first place with scores of 7-4 in both the rapid and blindfold portions. His 14-8 total edged out world champion Viswanathan Anand of India (7-4 blindfold) and former champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (6 1/2 -4 1/2 blindfold), who finished with 13 1/2 -8 1/2 totals.
Former U.S. champion Gata Kamsky tied for eighth place at 10-12, precisely as the ratings predicted. Strangely, though, he tied for first at 7-4 in the rapid portion but finished last at 3-8 in blindfold.Levon Aronian won the Amber tournament in Nice, France, for the second consecutive year. The Armenian grandmaster, ranked 11th in the world, led a field that included eight of the world's nine highest-rated stars.
The unique Amber tournament requires two 25-minute games against each opponent. In one, both players play a 21st century form of blindfold chess, without those cumbersome blindfolds. Each player briefly sees the algebraic notation for his opponent's move on his computer monitor, but only the audience sees the position. The prize fund of 216,000 Euros (about $293,000) placates those worried about the occasional embarrassing blunder.
Aronian tied for first place with scores of 7-4 in both the rapid and blindfold portions. His 14-8 total edged out world champion Viswanathan Anand of India (7-4 blindfold) and former champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (6 1/2 -4 1/2 blindfold), who finished with 13 1/2 -8 1/2 totals.
Other scores: Magnus Carlsen (Norway), 7-4 blindfold, 13-9 combined; Alexander Morozevich (Russia), 6 1/2 -4 1/2 and 11-11; Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), 5 1/2 -5 1/2 and 10 1/2 -11 1/2 ; Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine), 4 1/2 -6 1/2 and 10 1/2 -11 1/2 ; Peter Leko (Hungary), 5 1/2 -5 1/2 and 10-12; Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), 5-6 and 9 1/2 -12 1/2 ; Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), 5-6 and 9-13; and Wang Yue (China), 3 1/2 -7 1/2 and 7 1/2 -14 1/2 .
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