19th amber blindfold and rapid tournament 2010 ...

March 13-25, 2010, Nice, France

The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament, organized by the Association Max Euwe in Monaco, takes place from March 13 (first round) to March 25 (last round) at the Palais de la Mediterranée, splendidly located on the famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The total prize-fund is € 216,000.

The twelve participants are (in alphabetical order): Levon Aronian (Armenia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov, Jan Smeets (The Netherlands) and Peter Svidler.

Every day four sessions will be played, two blindfold sessions and two rapid sessions. The first session starts at 14.30 hrs. The fourth session finishes around 20.00 hrs. (Note: the final round on March 25 starts at 12.30 hrs. March 17 and 22 are rest days.)


http://www.amberchess2010.com/

Who will win Amber ? You can vote here:

http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/who-will-win-amber-second-preview-video/#more-23051

I voted for Carlsen ( ... second will be Kramnik).

Whom did you vote for ?

carlsen just opened 1.a3 against ivanchuk! 😵

Originally posted by ivanhoe
Who will win Amber ? You can vote here:

I voted for Carlsen ( ... second will be Kramnik).

Whom did you vote for ?

Carlson's start was not good. He lost his blind game and his rapid game. Perhaps 1.a3 is not that good after all. Sometimes we all want to be Tony Miles, but there was only one.

One was enough, I can't look at a3 for too long it drives me crazy. Which isn't to say he was bad, we just don't need a lot of copycats running around.

Carlsen did however beat Aronian today.

he should have played 1.h3, a3 theory is too well known...

Originally posted by wormwood
carlsen just opened 1.a3 against ivanchuk! 😵

😕

Originally posted by JDChess
Carlsen did however beat Aronian today.

Twice! 🙂 I thought the second game would end in a draw, but he wouldn't have any of that!

Originally posted by Nordlys
Twice! 🙂 I thought the second game would end in a draw, but he wouldn't have any of that!

I know. When I saw the zugzwang motif going and realized that king was going to f8 I almost died!

Originally posted by JDChess
I know. When I saw the zugzwang motif going and realized that king was going to f8 I almost died!

Today he won another game that totally looked like a draw (the rapid game against Smeets). After winning all the games of rounds 2-4, he has now caught up with Ivanchuk.

Playchess report from round 3, with a funny picture of Magnus being puzzled about Svidler's first move because he thought he was playing white: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6189 🙂

at what time do the games start??? U.S. eastern time ???

Originally posted by Nordlys
Today he won another game that totally looked like a draw (the rapid game against Smeets). After winning all the games of rounds 2-4, he has now caught up with Ivanchuk.

Playchess report from round 3, with a funny picture of Magnus being puzzled about Svidler's first move because he thought he was playing white: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6189 🙂

The photo of Svidler 'savouring the moment' is classic!

Smeets beats Kramnik in blindfold game !

Carlsen and Ivanchuk shared the tournament win, despite Carlsen blundering his queen today. 🙂