Fred McKim
03-11-2011, 12:37 PM
Tomorrow, Monaco is the site of first round of the final Amber Rapid and Blindfold Tournament (called the Melody Amber Tournament for many years). Dutch business man, Joop van Oosterom has been sponsoring this event from the beginning, and this, the 20th edition will be the final one.
The format is two games per day against an opponent; one at rapid speed and the other also at rapid speed, but without sight of the pieces. There are twelve players lined up in this year’s competition.
Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov are all widely considered to be the top 5 players in the world, and are present. They are joined by Vasily Ivanchuk, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Boris Gelfand, Vugar Gashimov, and Anish Giri.
Last year, first place was shared by Carlsen and Ivanchuk, after Aronian had won the previous two editions. The all-time champion is Kramnik with 6.
With no FIDE rating points on the line, this has regularly been one of the strongest tournaments in the world. There are a couple of rest days along the way, with the last round going on March 24.
http://www.amberchess20.com/index.html
The format is two games per day against an opponent; one at rapid speed and the other also at rapid speed, but without sight of the pieces. There are twelve players lined up in this year’s competition.
Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov are all widely considered to be the top 5 players in the world, and are present. They are joined by Vasily Ivanchuk, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Boris Gelfand, Vugar Gashimov, and Anish Giri.
Last year, first place was shared by Carlsen and Ivanchuk, after Aronian had won the previous two editions. The all-time champion is Kramnik with 6.
With no FIDE rating points on the line, this has regularly been one of the strongest tournaments in the world. There are a couple of rest days along the way, with the last round going on March 24.
http://www.amberchess20.com/index.html