The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament, organized by the Association
Max Euwe in Monaco, is taking 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.
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 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.
Last week Alexander Morozevich, who was originally invited, informed the organizers
that he was forced to withdraw from the tournament for private reasons. Alexander
Grischuk accepted the invitation to come to Nice at short notice to replace
his countryman. Grischuk is the reigning Russian champion and is the current
number 7 in the world rankings.
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. 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.
Pictures portraits
Magnus Carlsen: Norway, Elo rating: 2813, World ranking: 1,
born November 30, 1990, Amber highlights: Shared second in the rapid in his
2007 debut, shared second in 2008, shared first in the blindfold in 2009.
On the January 2010 FIDE rating list, ‘slightly ahead of schedule’,
Magnus Carlsen conquered the first place in the world rankings. Aged 19, he
was the youngest chess player ever to achieve this feat. The top spot in the
rating hierarchy was the inevitable result of a series of excellent results
in the course of 2009. His finest victory the Norwegian celebrated in the super-tournament
in Nanjing where he posted an unbelievable 3002 with a TPR of 2839, which was
more or less in line with his current 2813 rating. Another 2009 highlight was
his win in the World Blitz Championship, a full three points ahead of Vishy
Anand. In the first month of this year Carlsen continued his streak of successes
by claiming first place in the Corus tournament, the youngest GM in history
to do so.
Carlsen has been making headlines worldwide ever since he began his race for
the grandmaster title. In the first month of 2004 he took the Corus C Group
by storm and only three months later he made his third and final GM norm in
Dubai. At the age of 13 years, 4 months and 26 days he was (at that time) the
youngest grandmaster in the world. In the years that followed this historic
moment Carlsen didn’t disappoint his followers. In rapid and blitz tournaments
he drew with Kasparov and even beat Karpov and Anand, and also in ‘classical’
chess he began collecting outstanding results. At the 2005 World Cup tournament
in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, he became the youngest chess player in history
to qualify for the Candidates’ matches for the world championship. Among
his further tournament successes are first place in Biel in 2007, and shared
first place in Wijk aan Zee and the Baku Grand Prix tournament in 2008.
It goes without saying that Carlsen continues to be closely followed by the
press. Thousands of articles have been written about him, a film has been made
about his spectacular rise (The Prince of Chess) and a book has appeared (originally
published as Wonderboy). Still, anyone who believes that he’s only obsessed
with chess is wrong. He’s just as passionate about football, tennis or
skiing.
In Amber Carlsen has also been improving rapidly. In 2008 he tied for second
overall, last year he tied for first in the blindfold. There can be no doubt
about his aim this time.
Vladimir Kramnik: Russia, Elo rating: 2790, World ranking:
3, born June 25, 1975, Amber highlights: Overall winner in 1996, 1998 (shared
with Shirov), 1999, 2001 (shared with Topalov), 2004 (shared with Morozevich)
and 2007. Shared second in 2008 and 2009.
No player can boast a better Amber record than Vladimir Kramnik, who over
the years won the event an amazing six times. And when he doesn’t win
the tall Russian always mixes in the fight for first place, as testify his second
places in the previous two editions. Kramnik is exceptionally strong in the
blindfold part. Last year he even considered asking the arbiter if he could
also play the rapid games without sight of the board. His blindfold win against
Topalov in the 2003 edition ranks as one of the most brilliant achievements
in Amber history.
Kramnik has been among the world elite ever since he burst upon the scene at
the Manila Olympiad in 1992, where as a 17-year-old youngster he had a baffling
8,5 out of 9 debut on the Russian team. Over the years he’s won practically
everything that there is to be won, including the
super-tournaments in Wijk aan Zee in 1998 and Linares in 2000 and 2004.
In Dortmund he lifted the winner’s trophy no fewer than nine times! His
tie for first with Kasparov in Linares in 2000 turned out to be the prologue
of the biggest success in his rich career, his World Championship match victory
over the same Kasparov later that year in London. Without suffering a single
loss he defeated his ‘former boss’ 8.5-6.5. Kramnik successfully
defended his world title in Brissago in 2004 against Peter Leko when in a must-win
situation he won the last game, and in Elista in 2006 against Topalov, when
he struck in the rapid play-off. He lost the title in 2007 in the World Championship
Tournament in Mexico where he finished shared second behind the new champion,
Anand. In Bonn 2008 he got a chance to reclaim the title in a match against
Anand, but the Indian proved better prepared and won convincingly.
Bad preparation was also Kramnik’s complaint after he failed to win this
year’s Corus tournament (although he did beat his rival Carlsen in a great
game), so we can expect him to arrive with some fresh ammunition in Nice. After
all, Kramnik has the reputation of being one of the best prepared players in
the world. Currently ranked 3rd in the world, Kramnik admirably recovered after
he lost against Anand in Bonn and his results in 2009 were impressive as ever.
He once again won Dortmund and he also topped what was probably the strongest
tournament of the year, the Tal Memorial in Moscow. In Nice he will be, as always,
one of the top-favourites.
Peter Svidler: Russia, Elo rating: 2750, World ranking: 8,
born June 17, 1976, Amber highlights: Overall shared fourth in 2007.
Following a two-year interval, Peter Svidler makes his Amber come-back. Small
wonder, as the grandmaster from St. Petersburg is the current number 8 in the
world rankings and his 2750 rating is only 15 points shy of his all-time best
2765, which he reached three years ago.
For the past fifteen years Peter Svidler has been a steady member of the chess
elite, a status that he confirmed with his shared second place at the World
Championship Tournament in San Luis in 2005. This classification automatically
ensured him of a place in the next World Championship tournament that took place
in Mexico City in 2007, where he finished fifth.
Although he is only 33 years old, Svidler can rely on a wealth of experience.
His first splash he made in 1994, when at the age of 18 he became Russian champion
in Elista. To prove that this victory had not been a coincidence he repeated
it in 1995 and 1997. His international breakthrough came in 1997 when he shared
first place with Kramnik and Kasparov in Tilburg and defeated the latter in
their direct encounter.
Following these first successes he hit a slump from which he only recovered
in 2003. He won the Russian championship for the fourth time and was a member
of the Russian team that won the European Championship in Plovdiv.
Svidler is a wonderful team player and his wins with the Russian team and club
teams in Russia, Germany and France are too many to enumerate. But if we limit
us to last year we can mention his part in the Bundesliga championship of Baden-Baden
with 7 out of 9 and the 6 out of 8 he scored for new French champion Evry Grand
Roque (the club he moved to after the legendary NAO Chess Club from Paris ceased
to exist; with NAO Svidler also won three European Club Cups).
Early last year he won first prize in the GibTelecom Festival in Gibraltar
and celebrated an enjoyable stay in Bunratty, Ireland with a second consecutive
win. Last summer Svidler was the top-rated player on the Experience team that
defeated the Rising Stars at the NH Tournament in Amsterdam and contributed
generously (6 out of 10) to their victory. At the Russian Super Final, last
December, he finished second behind Grischuk. In his first four Amber tournaments
Svidler scored exactly 44 points from 88 games, let’s see what he is up
to now.
A lineup of all the participants: Dominguez, Aronian, Gelfand, Ponomariov,
Svidler, Carlsen, Karjakin, Kramnik, Smeets, Gashimov, Ivanchuk (with Grischuk
behind him)
Bios by the official web site, photos by Dr John Nunn
Links
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009! |
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