The Chess Mind
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en-us2008-10-22T04:10+00:00Amber Rapid & Blindfold: The 11th and Final Round
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1206659980.shtml
There weren't too many short draws, but there were no changes in the overall standings. (There were, however, important changes in the specifically rapid and blindfold standings.) The Kramnik-Karjakin, Anand-van Wely,...Dennis Monokroussos2008-03-27T23:03+00:00 Final Blindfold Standings: (In tiebreak order)
All the games can be replayed on the tournament website, while Gelfand-Mamedyarov, with my notes, is here.
]]>Amber Games from Rounds 9 & 10
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1206601835.shtml
As promised. Also, for your convenience, here's the automatically updated video bar:...Dennis Monokroussos2008-03-27T07:03+00:00As promised. Also, for your convenience, here's the automatically updated video bar:
]]>Amber Rapid & Blindfold: Round 10
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1206588478.shtml
All the leaders drew their matches, and that means that Levon Aronian has won the event. After he drew both games with Vladimir Kramnik and the Peter Leko-Magnus Carlsen contest was...Dennis Monokroussos2008-03-27T03:03+00:00
In other action, Topalov defeated van Wely 1.5-.5 and joined the tie for second. Anand defeated Gelfand in the blindfold game, and had he won the rapid game he'd have joined the tie; unfortunately, he lost, and with White. Finally, Mamedyarov and Morozevich defeated Ivanchuk and Karjakin, respectively, by identical 1.5-.5 scores.
(These are the colors for the blindfold games; flip it around for the rapid games.)
All the games can be found on the tournament site; I'll have a selection of games from rounds 9 and 10 in a subsequent post.]]>Amber Rapid & Blindfold: Day 9
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1206514057.shtml
This will be a "just the facts" post; annotated games will appear later. The most important bit of info is that Aronian extended his lead in the combined standings by giving...Dennis Monokroussos2008-03-26T06:03+00:00 Leading Blindfold Standings:
Ivanchuk - Mamedyarov
van Wely - Topalov
Gelfand - Anand
Karjakin - Morozevich
Aronian - Kramnik (The match of the day!)
Leko - Carlsen (Not bad either - all four leaders are paired.)
(First-named players have White in the blindfold game.)
Tournament website here.]]>Amber Day 8: The Good and the Ugly
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1206427508.shtml
As promised, or at least threatened, here are a couple of games from Sunday's rounds at the Amber Rapid & Blindfold tournament in Nice, France. Both are blindfold games,...Dennis Monokroussos2008-03-25T06:03+00:00here are a couple of games from Sunday's rounds at the Amber Rapid & Blindfold tournament in Nice, France. Both are blindfold games, but that's where the similarities end. The first game, Carlsen-Mamedyarov, was a very interesting game that holds up on its own merits, without any qualifiers about its being a blindfold contest. The second game, however, shows a peculiarly blindfold error, one that has occurred more than once in this event. van Wely's problem in his game with Leko was not that he forgot Leko's move, but apparently that he misread it in the first place! As I note in my commentary, he might have been able to realize his error, but that chance vanished in what may have been a moment of overconfident euphoria. Next time, he might take a page out of Anand's book (see the round 6 video covering his blindfold game with Karjakin).
]]>Amber Rapid & Blindfold: Day 8
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1206330039.shtml
Despite the presence of a substantial chase pack, the tournament had looked like a two-man race between Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand for the past several rounds. This is no longer...Dennis Monokroussos2008-03-24T03:03+00:00 Round 8 Results - Blindfold:
Aronian - Anand 1-0
Carlsen - Mamedyarov 1-0
Karjakin - Topalov 1/2-1/2
van Wely - Leko 0-1
Gelfand - Morozevich 1/2-1/2
Ivanchuk - Kramnik 1/2-1/2
(You know the drill: the players in the left column have White in the blindfold games and Black in the rapid.)
All the games can be replayed on the tournament website; I may post notes to a selection of games sometime tomorrow.]]>Amber Rapid & Blindfold: Day 7
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1206240558.shtml
Having mentioned both a completed and an upcoming (ok, freshly started) event, let's return to an actually ongoing contest, the annual rapid & blindfold super-tournament in Nice. Yesterday's round saw a...Dennis Monokroussos2008-03-23T02:03+00:00
All the games can be replayed on the tournament site, while the Anand-Carlsen games and the rapid draw between van Wely and Kramnik are here, with my brief comments.
(The first-named player has White in the blindfold game and Black in the rapid.)]]>Amber Rapid & Blindfold: Day 6
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1206144684.shtml
There were interesting, hard-fought and dramatic games in today's action at the Amber Rapid & Blindfold tournament in Nice, France, but in the end only two of the twelve games were...Dennis Monokroussos2008-03-22T00:03+00:00
I've presented both games here, and the other games can be accessed on the event website.
The standings are essentially unchanged, with the one important exception that Anand has pulled to within half a point of Aronian in the overall standings: