Melody Amber: Aronian leads by a full point

The seventeenth Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament is taking place from March 15 to 27 in the Palais de la Mediterranée, Nice, France. Twelve leading grandmasters play blindfold and rapid chess games against each other. The prize fund is a massive 216,000 Euro (currently US $336,000). The sponsor is Dutch billionaire Joop Van Oosterom.

The playing venue of the seventeenth Amber Tournament in Nice, France

Report after round five

The fourth round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament was marked by an impromptu birthday celebration for Ukrainian GM Vasily Ivanchuk, who turned 40 on March 18. Ivanchuk has played in this tournament every year ever since it was first held in 1992!

There was also some interesting news regarding world champion Vishy Anand: he received an honorary doctorate from the Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University in Chennai. Due to his participation in the Amber tournament the World Champion Anand could not attend the ceremony, but was represented by his parents. This is the third honorary doctorate for Anand. Unfortunately he celebrated by losing his rapid chess game to Peter Leko.

Greetings and congratulations for Dr. Dr. Dr. Anand from opponent Peter Leko, who drew this blindfold game and then, showing little respect of academic titles, won the rapid chess encounter. On the right: Vladimir Kramnik.

The heavy-weight bout between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik started (without a handshake) with a Petroff Defence in the blindfold game. White got a slight advantage, but the game ended with a threefold repetition, which saved the players the trouble working out some courteous method of agreeing to a draw. They both looked into the direction of the arbiter, all three nodded their heads, and that was it. In the rapid game Kramnik scored a fine win that gave him satisfaction both from a sporting and a creative point of view.

To shake or not to shake: Blindfold chess in hostile atmosphere between old enemies

In the rapid chess game Vladimir Kramnik scored a fine victory over Veselin Topalov

The big winner of round five was Levon Aronian, who moved into the sole lead in the overall standings with 6.5/10 points, one point ahead of a pack of no fewer than six players.

In the lead: Armenian GM Levon Aronian

Standings after five rounds (ten games)

1. Carlsen    3½
2. Ivanchuk   3    
   Kramnik    3    
   Morozevich 3    
   Topalov    3    
3. Aronian    2½
   Karjakin   2½
   Leko       2½
   Van Wely   2½
4. Anand      2    
5. Mamedyarov 1½
6. Gelfand    1

1. Aronian    4    
2. Anand      3½
3. Leko       3   
4. Gelfand    2½
   Ivanchuk   2½
   Karjakin   2½
   Kramnik    2½
   Mamedyarov 2½
   Topalov    2½
5. Carlsen    2    
6. Van Wely   1½
7. Morozevich 1

1. Aronian    6½
2. Anand      5½
   Carlsen    5½
   Ivanchuk   5½
   Kramnik    5½
   Leko       5½
   Topalov    5½
3. Karjakin   5    
4. Mamedyarov 4    
   Morozevich 4    
   Van Wely   4    
5. Gelfand    3½

Video reports from the tournament site

Links

• Official tournament site
• Games and full round-by-round reports