Amber 2008 game: Kramnik-Topalov

Kramnik-Topalov 2008, 1-0 Amber (Rapid)

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. O-O Na68. Be3 Ng4 9. Bg5 Qe8 10. Re1 exd4 11. Nd5 d3 12. Bxd3 c6 13. Ne7 Kh814. Nxc8 Rxc8 15. Bf1 Nc5 16. Qxd6 Nxe4 17. Qa3 f5 18. h3 Ne5 19. Bf4 Nd720. Qxa7 Bxb2 21. Rab1 Bg7 22. Qxb7 Ndc5 23. Qb6 Rf7 24. Ng5 Rb7 25. Qxb7! Nxb726. Rxb7 Kg8? 27. c5! h6 28. Bc4 Kh8 29. Be5 hxg5 30. Bxg7 Kh7 31. Bf8 Kh832. Be7 Rb8 33. Rxe4 1-0


This is the remarkable 2008 rapid Amber game between Kramnik and Topalov. Note White's 25th move with a strong attack in this King's Indian with 7..Na6.

Annotations and game replay here and here :

http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/files/amber2008_rd5.htm

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1488135

Link to the 2008 tournament:
http://www.amberchess2008.com


These two players will be present in the 2009 edition starting next week...

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 ?

Melody Amber Previous winners ( Overall)

Here's the list of winners (combined rapid+blindfold) and location of previous Amber Chess tournaments :

Nice, France
2008 Aronian

Monaco
2007 Kramnik
2006 Anand,Morozevich
2005 Anand
2004 Morozevich,Kramnik
2003 Anand
2002 Morozevich
2001 Kramnik,Topalov
2000 Shirov
1999 Kramnik
1998 Kramnik,Shirov
1997 Anand
1996 Kramnik
1995 Karpov
1994 Anand
1993 Ljubojevic
1992 Ivanchuk

Overall Kramnik won it 6 times and Anand 5 times ! Let's say that Morozevich, with 3 wins in the last 6 editions is more than a serious contender too.

Who will win the 2009 Amber edition ?
http://www.amberchess2009.com/

Linares ( Round 10) : Carlsen-Wang Yue

Click on the link below to play through the game:

Wang Yue played a fantastic game against Carlsen today in Linares.

Note his 32th move for instance, but the whole attack with the black pieces, isolated d-pawn reminds me of Kasparov youth games in the Tarrasch with Black ( Sunye Neto-Kasparov 1981 for instance)

Tactics in the bogo-indian

I White to play

can you work out an interesting tactial continuation ?

II White played 1.Rxb7 in the following position. Was that wise ?

Calculate well !

Improve your endgame technique (training positions)

Practice makes perfect. Here are two technical endgame positions. Both positions are for white to play. Spend 5 minutes assessing each position. I recommend you play from the White's side both positions in 15'+2'' against your favorite chess engine ( Rybka,Fritz,Shredder,Crafty,Fruit 2.1...).

Position I. White to play

Position II, White to play

Both positions come from actual games.

middle-game attacks / 2 Cvitan Positions

The first position comes from the game Movsesian-Cvitan 1997, which was part of an excellent article from the late GM Tony Miles on ChessCafe.

Movsesian-Cvitan 1997
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.g4 Nc6 7.g5Nd7 8.Be3 Be7 9.h4 O-O 10.Qh5 a6 11.O-O-O Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b513.Bd3 Ne5 14.f4 Nxd3+ 15.Rxd3 Bb7 16.Rg1 b4 17.Nd5! exd518.Rdg3! Qc7 see diagram

I- White to play and win

Interestingly, Cvitan played the Black side of this Sicilian quite a bit and lost the following wild game in the same variation, also in 1997.

"Wohl-Cvitan 1997"1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.g4 Nc6 7.g5 Nd7 8.Be3 Be7 9.Rg1 0-0 10.Qh5 g6 11.Qh4 Nde5 12.Be2 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 f6 14.f4 fxg5 15.fxg5 Qa5 16.0-0-0 Bd7 17.Qg3 Rad8 18.h4 Nc6 19.Be3 Ne5 20.h5 b5 21.hxg6 hxg6 22.Rh1 b4 23.Qh4 Kf7 24.Bf4 Ke8 25.Nd5!? exd5 26.Rxd5 Qxa2 27.Bxe5 dxe5 28.Qh6 Qa1+ 29.Kd2 Bxg5+ 30.Qxg5 Qxh1 31.Qxg6+ Rf7 32.Qg8+ Ke7 33.Qg5+ Rf6 34.Qg7+ Rf7 35.Qxe5+ Kf8 36.Qd6+ Kg8 37.Rg5+ Rg7 38.Rxg7+ Kxg7 39.Qe7+ Kh6 40.Qxd8 Qh3 1-0

But Cvitan remains a very strong opponent, check out the following, played in 2003 against a strong german GM.

Lutz,C-Cvitan,O 2003, 0-1. 1e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 Be7 8. Qd2 O-O 9. O-O-ONc6 10. g4 Nxd4 11. Bxd4 b5 12. g5 Nd7 13. h4Qc7 14. Kb1 b4 15. Na4 Bb7 16. b3 Bc6 17. Nb2a5 18. h5 Ne5 19. Be2 a4 20. g6 h6 21. gxf7+Rxf7 22. Rhg1 axb3 23. cxb3 Bg5 24. Qxb4 Nxf3 25. Bxf3Rxf3 26. Rge1 d5! 27. exd5 Bxd5 28. Be5 Qf7 29. Na4Qxh5 30. Ka1 Bh4 31. Rxd5 Bxe1 32. Qb7 Qg5 33. Qxa8+Kh7 34. Rc5 Re3 35. Bd4 Qg1 36. Qe4+ Rxe4 37. Bxg1Bg3 38. Kb2 Re1 39. Bd4 e5 40. Bc3 Re2+ 41. Ka3h5 42. Bb2 h4 43. Rc1 h3 44. Nc3 Re1 45. Rc2h2 46. Rxh2+ Bxh2 47. b4 e4 48. b5 e3 49. b6Rf1 50. Kb3 Rf2 51. Bc1 e2 52. Bd2 Rf6 53. Nxe2Rxb6+ 54. Kc2 Ra6 55. Kb3 Rb6+ 56. Kc2 Be5 57. a4Rb2+ 58. Kd1 Ra2 59. a5 0-1

Finally, here's another position for training. I recommend you set up this position on your computer, and try to win it with Black using 15minutes+2 seconds increment. A good way to practice. Just copy and paste the following line (FEN position) in your favorite chess program and play with Black.

FEN "r1bq2k1/ppp2rbn/1P1P2n1/P1B1p2p/2N1Pp2/2N2Pp1/4B1PP/R2Q1R1K b - - 0 21"

II Black to play (try to play with Black against your computer)

All games/positions can be replayed (with their solutions) on a Java board here:

http://games.top10chess.com/cvitanfiles.htm

Practicing calculation of variations

White to play and win (Bauer-Abergel 2008)


1.?

White has a decisive advantange but there's still room for errors.Here, instead of letting you guess the best move, I will providethe candidate moves and the analytical work consists in going through eachvariation and deciding which one works and which one doesn't.
I identified 4 candidate moves :
A) 1 Qg7+
B) 1 Rh8+
C) 1 Nh7+
D) 1 Nd7+

Analyze each of them in the order you like and determine the validity of each one.Good Luck !


This game was declared the best one of that tournament.