Amber Chess 2009: Aronian wins in Nice !

Levon Aronian, Nice winner Amber Edition 2009

By drawing his two games against Topalov today, Levon Aronian won the combined 2009 Amber tournament. This is the second win in a row for the armenian grand master, as he won last year's combined Amber event as well.

Levon Aronian overall winner in Amber 2009 !

The tournament was incredibly strong this year, with the participation of Anand,Kramnik,Topalov,Carlsen,Morozevich,Karjakin and many other top GMs.

I think that Aronian's success lies in very strong middle-game skills both from a tactical and strategic standpoint, the ability to save or turn around compromised positions ( see rapid game against Carlsen for instance), finding counter-chances and making superb practical decisions especially in complex positions, and excellent nerves & self-control in time-trouble.

A great example today was his move 32..Re8! in the blindfold Topalov-Aronian.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1541024


Finally Aronian has developed a well-thought out opening repertoire with 1d4 as main weapon for White (with also 1.c4 and 1Nf3 as alternatives). As Black, he can play 1..e5 or 1..c6 against 1.e4, and favors the Slav against 1.d4.

Kramnik, Anand and Carlsen were also in the running for first place during the tournament.
This year's event produced numerous exciting battles, including the blindfold tournament, which showed that top grandmasters can play fast and accurately without a chessboard, which I find personally very impressive. Only a few blindfold games were decided by blunders, with the vast majority displaying quality chess !



Official Website and Final Standings :
http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Excellent coverage also at :

http://www.chessvibes.com/ (with on-site videos)

http://www.chessgames.com/

http://www.theweekinchess.com/

Toward the end, Europe-Echecs provided on-site coverage as well:
http://www.europe-echecs.com/

Amber 2009 opening ideas

Interesting opening ideas in Amber 2009


Rapid tournament:

Aronian-Leko (2) West-Indian
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. Qc2 Bb7 6. Bg2 c5 7. d5 !?
Also played in Topalov-Anand Bilbao 2008 and Nielsen-Heinemann 2008.

Carlsen-Ivanchuk (2) E32 Nimzo Qc2
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 Nc6 5. Nf3 d6 6. Bd2 a5 !?

Leko-Morozevich (7) Caro-Kan
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Ng5 Ngf6 6. Bd3 e5 !?

Kramnik-Anand (8) E32 Nimzo Qc2
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. Qxc3 d5 !? 7. cxd5 Ne4 !?
Other moves for White would be 7.Bg5 or 7.Nf3 where Black can try 7..dc4 8 Qc4 b6 !? with idea ..Ba6 just like in Morozevich-Topalov (blindfold round 4)

Blind Tournament:

Kramnik-Morozevich (1) Gruenfeld
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 Bg7 5. e3 c5 6. dxc5 Qa5 7. Rc1 dxc4 8.Bxc4 O-O 9. Nf3 Qxc5 10. Bb3 Nc6 11. O-O Qa5 12. h3 Bf5 13. Ng5 !?

Morozevich-Wang (2) Petroff
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be78. Re1 Bg4 9. c3 f5 10. Qb3 O-O 11. Nbd2 Na5 12. Qc2 Nc6 13. b4 !?

Leko-Kamsky (5) Double fianchetto-Hedgehog for Black.
1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nf3 b6 !? 4. Bd3 Bb7 5. O-O d6 6. c3 e6 !? 7. Re1 Ne7 8.Nbd2 Nd7 9. Nf1 a6

Anand-Radjabov (6) Sicilian Rossolimo
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 g6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d3 Bg7 6. h3 b6 7. O-O e5 8.a3 !?

Anand-Kramnik (8) Petroff
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 Nxe4 4. Bd3 d5 5. Nxe5 !? Nd7 6. Nxd7 Bxd7 7. O-OBd6 8. c4 c6 9. cxd5 cxd5 10. Nc3 Nxc3 11. bxc3 O-O 12. Qh5 !?
Also 5 de5 is a valid alternative in the Petroff

Anand-Kramnik Amber Tactics 2009 - Round 8

White to play and win

Anand-Kramnik , Amber Blindfold (8)

Anand won the blindfold game and drew the rapid , to win the mini-match 1.5-0.5

Today's tactical position at Amber 2009

How did White surprise his opponent in the position below ?

Anand-Ivanchuk, Amber 2009 (5), White to play

Answer: see 34th move from Anand

http://www.amberchess2009.com/

More photos from Amber

V. Ivanchuk, during an interview after his drawn match with Kamsky yesterday

Carlsen Family : Magnus and Henrik

Top 10 Photos from Amber Chess 2009 ( March 17, 2009)

Peter and Sofia Leko

Aronian and Anand (Their two games were drawn today)

Levon Aronian, happy with his play so far




http://www.amberchess2009.com/ for the official site.

Today's Brilliancy by Carlsen in Nice Round 3

Black to play ( 27..., Anand-Carlsen)

Blindfold round 3, Amber Tournament 2009, Nice France

Anand-Carlsen 0-1

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 d6 4. O-O Bd7 5. Re1 Nf6 6. c3 a6 7. Bf1 Bg4 8. d3 e6 9. Nbd2 Be7 10. h3 Bh5 11. g4?! Bg6 12. Nh4 Nd7 13. Ng2 h5! 14. f4 hxg4 15. hxg4 Qc7 16. Nf3 O-O-O 17. Ne3 Nb6 18. Nc4 Nxc4 19. dxc4 f5 20. exf5 exf5 21. g5 Bf7 22. Qc2 g6 23. Qf2 d5! 24. cxd5 Bxd5 25. Be3 Bxg5! 26. Qg3 Be7 27. Bg2 g5! 28. Nxg5 Bxg5 29. Bxd5 Rxd5 30. Qxg5 Qf7 31. Kf2 Rh2 32. Kf1 Rd8 33. Qg3 Qc4! 34. Kg1 Rxb2 0-1

23..d5! aimed at opening lines. Classic reaction in the center against flank attack.

27..g5! with idea of opening column g. What's a pawn when you are attacking the king ?
25..Bg5! with idea 26 fg5 Bf3 27Qf3 Qh2#

34..Rb2 with idea 25..Rg8 decides the game.

Great attack by Magnus Carlsen today against the current world champion Anand.

Carlsen showed today an amazing ability to play complex and tactical positions in blindfold games. Anand's play was too aggressive on the king-side by pushing g4-g5 early on and got punished in great style. Lots of folks would be proud to play at the same level in a rapid game !