Monaco Melody Amber Chess 2011

Monaco (click the picture to expand!)

http://www.amberchess20.com/

March 11 - March 25 2011

Participants

Viswanathan Anand (India),

Magnus Carlsen (Norway),

Levon Aronian (Armenia),

Vladimir Kramnik (Russia),

Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria),

Alexander Grischuk (Russia),

Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine),

Sergey Karjakin (Russia),

Boris Gelfand (Israel),

Hikaru Nakamura (United States),

Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan)

Anish Giri (The Netherlands)

Sadly, the 20th and last edition of an incredible chess tournament I had the privilege to attend in person several times.

You can review several games from previous tournaments on this blog, for instance:

http://www.top10chess.com/2009/03/amber-round-2-aronian-leko-rapid.html

http://www.top10chess.com/2009/03/carlsen-kramnik-blindfold-brilliancy-10.html

Carlsen-Kramnik Blindfold Brilliancy (10)

Another brilliant game at Amber, this time Vladimir Kramnik produced a blindfold masterpiece !

[Event "Amber Blind"]
[Site "Nice"]
[Date "2009.03.25"]
[Round "10"]
[White "Carlsen,M"]
[Black "Kramnik,V"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E32"]
[Opening "Nimzo-Indian"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. Ne2 Ba5 8.O-O Bb6 9. d5? Nb4 10. Qd2 exd5 11. cxd5?! Ng4! 12. Bb1 Qh4 13. Qf4 f5! 14. exf5Bxf5 15. h3 Bxf2+ 16. Kh1 Bd7 17. Qg5 Bc5! 18. Rxf8+ Rxf8 19. Ng1 Rf1! 20.Bxh7+ Kh8 0-1

After 13..f5!


Comments :

5 e4 !? is a interesting attempt to deviate from main lines of 4 Qc2

7..Ba5!? Kramnik relocating the bishop to b6 to attack d4

7 Nf3 instead of 7 Nge2 has the advantage of controlling h4, which was a factor in the game

8 a3!? to prevent Nb4 and prepare b4, without castling was probably an improvement on the game 8 0-0.

9 d5? more cautious was 9 Be3 Ng4 10 h3 Ne3 11fe3 Qg5 12 Rf3



11 Nd5 was probably better than the game's 11 cd5.

12 Bb1 sounds passive but 12 h3? Ne5 13 Bb1 Bxh3! with idea Nf3+

14 ef5?, it was better to admit that Black's attack is dangerous and play 14 Qg3

15 Bf5 was not possible because of 15..Rf5! 16 Qg3 as 16 Qf5 is met by Qh2 #.

Instead of 20 Bh7+, 20 Nce2 Bg1 21 Ng1 Rg1+! 22 Kg1 Qe1 is Checkmate

20 Bh7+ was a cheap trick, as 20..Kh7?? is met by Qxh4+, but Kramnik correctly played Kh8 of course.

Full Game replayable here:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1541010

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

Round 7 at Amber : Tactics !

Radjabov-Kamsky, Amber Blindfold (7)

White to play a strong move !

17.?

Leko-Morozevich , Amber Rapid (7)

White to play and win (easy!)

40.?

Tournament Standings :
Anand to face Kramnik tomorrow in a key match, as the two players currently lead the combined tournament at Amber

Amber Round 2 (Aronian-Leko, Rapid)

Today's masterpiece was created by Aronian.

Part I-White to play for the attack

Aronian-Leko Rapid 2

Part II-White to play and win

Aronian-Leko 1-0 Rapid (2)

-------------------

Solution Part II

White played 26 Rd1! Rf8 27 Rd5! Rf6 ?! 28 Qh7+ Kf8 29 Rg5! with idea Rg8#. Spectacular finish !

But 27..Nc6 was a marginally better defense, to stop the threat 28 Re5+. White would have to find 28 Qh7+ Kf6 29 Ne4+! Ke6 30 Rd6+ or 28..Ke6 28 Qe4+ Kf6 29 Rf5+!

http://www.amberchess2009.com/

You can find the pgn files and reports at the following websites as well:

http://www.theweekinchess.com/

http://www.chessvibes.com/

Amber 2009 Rapid round 1

Leko-Anand (Rapid, Amber 2009)
White to play and take the advantage

Full game replayable here
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=67594&crosstable=1

Official Site: http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Nice ( Le Port )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nice

Amber 2009 Round 1 (BLINDFOLD !)

Nice (picture)

ANAND-LEKO (BLINDFOLD, 2009 AMBER).

White to play and win

Full game replayable here
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=67595&crosstable=1

official tournament site:

http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Next top chess tournament in Nice,France

Nice, France below

http://www.amberchess2009.com/
(Amber Chess Tournament 2009 Official Site)

18th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournamentMarch 14-26, 2009 Nice, France



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).

Remarks:
I am highly appreciative of Mr Van Osterom, the Melody Amber sponsor for more than 15 years, as he helped create an original, entertaining and top-notch formula over the years. This tournament remains unique in many aspects (no ratings, blindfold chess) , whether it is played in Monaco (earlier years) or nowadays Nice. Vive la Cote d'Azur !

I do notice that the line-up is very prestigious and highly "correlated" with the Corus and Linares tournaments. For instance, Dominguez,Wang Yue, Radjabov,Aronian,Carlsen and Ivanchuk will play Corus, Linares and Amber back to back if I am not mistaken. While it is probably the strongest line-up one could think of, I would welcome the inclusion of the following top grandmasters:

H. NAKAMURA
E. BACROT
D. JAKOVENKO

as they have proven they can compete with the very best in rapid and classic tournaments. Also it would bring interesting match-ups varying from Corus and Linares.

Would you agree with this suggestion ?