The 18th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament, organized by the Association
Max Euwe in Monaco, is taking place from March 14 (first round) to March 26
(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.
Nice (or Nizza) lies in southern France on the Mediterranean coast and is
pronounced exactly like your sibling's female child ("niece"). It
is located between Marseille, France, and Genoa, Italy, and has a population
of just over one million.
An arial photo when approaching Nice, with the beautiful Mediterranean on
the left
Palais de la Mediterranée, where the event is taking place
The sea-front in Nice, France
This year’s field is stronger than ever with all the world’s best
players taking part. The twelve participants are (in alphabetical order): World
Champion Viswanathan Anand (India), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Magnus Carlsen
(Norway), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Gata Kamsky (United States), Sergey Karjakin
(Ukraine), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Peter Leko (Hungary), Alexander Morozevich
(Russia), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) and Wang
Yue (China).
The rate of play is 25 minutes per game per player. With every move made in
the blindfold games 20 seconds is added to the clock, with every move made in
the rapid games 10 seconds is added. Every day four sessions are played: two
blindfold and two rapid games. The first session starts at 14.30h. The fourth
session finishes around 20.00h. (Note: the final round on March 26 starts at
12.30h. March 18 and 23 are rest days).
Report after round one
| Round one: Blindfold Chess |
|
Round one: Rapid Chess |
| Kramnik-Morozevich |
1-0 |
|
Morozevich-Kramnik |
1-0 |
| Radjabov-Topalov |
½-½ |
|
Topalov-Radjabov |
½-½ |
| Karjakin-Wang Yue |
½-½ |
|
Wang Yue-Karjakin |
½-½ |
| Carlsen-Kamsky |
1-0 |
|
Kamsky-Carlsen |
1-0 |
| Anand-Leko |
1-0 |
|
Leko-Anand |
1-0 |
| Aronian-Ivanchuk |
1-0 |
|
Ivanchuk-Aronian |
0-1 |
A fine start for Armenian GM Levon Aronian – two wins against Vassily
Ivanchuk
This is how the blindfold games work: both players have a notebook where
they receive
the opponent's move when it is played. The chessboard on the screen is without
pieces.
Vladimir Kramnik in his blindfold game against Alexander Morozevich
Magnus Carlsen won his blind game against Gata Kamsky but lost the rapid
game
Pictorial impressions from Nice by John Nunn
After his successful
pictorial reports in this year's Wijk aan Zee tournament our friend and
colleague, Dr John Nunn, is back in action, this time at the Amber tournament
in Nice. For the uninitiated: John is a grandmaster, mathematician, scientist
who runs a successful chess publishing
house. Currently one of his prime hobbies is photography, which he practises
with an advanced Canon SLR camera. The following pictures were all sent to us
by John from Nice.
The Armenian clan: Levon Aroian with his mother and his father
Geurt Gijssen, who has been chief arbiter for all eighteen Amber tournaments.
In the above picture Geurt is unrolling a piece of paper with the name of the
next player to come up and draw his number in the drawing of lots.
Vladimir Kramnik ran into a spot of trouble: his mobile rang just as he
went to draw his number. Fortunately there is nothing in the FIDE rules requiring
that he default the drawing, and in fact he went on to chose the number one.
Held Kramnik: Alexander Morozevich in his Johnny Depp/Brad Pitt look
Some day, my father, all this will be yours? Henrik and Magnus Carlsen
Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov is currently number five in the world in the Live
Rankings
Vassily Ivanchuk with his wife at the reception dinner in Nice
Discussions: Lev Aronian, Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov
Chinese GM Wang Yue, who has climbed to place 14 on the Live Rankings
Yue is presented with a caricature of himself
A caricature of your photographer, John Nunn
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