The Chess Mind

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 decisive. Anand had equalized with Black against Karjakin in the blindfold game when his opponent (figuratively) went to sleep. The position seemed tactics-proof, but Anand very alertly demonstrated otherwise, whipping up a decisive attack almost out of nowhere. Morozevich's attacking intentions were more evident in his blindfold game against van Wely, but when the Dutchman failed to take them seriously, he too lost in a hurry.

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:

Leading Blindfold Standings:

1-2. Morozevich, Carlsen 4
3-5. Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Topalov 3.5

Leading Rapid Standings:

1. Aronian 4.5
2. Anand 4
3. Leko 3.5

Leading Overall Standings:

1. Aronian 7.5
2. Anand 7
3-7. Topalov, Leko, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Carlsen 6.5

Round 7 Pairings:

Morozevich - Ivanchuk
Kramnik - van Wely
Leko - Gelfand
Mamedyarov - Karjakin
Topalov - Aronian
Anand - Carlsen

(The first-named player has White in the blindfold game, Black in the rapid.)