Amber Chess R9: Aronian holds on to lead, Carlsen in hot pursuit

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hello everyone,

The 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament is taking place at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort in Monaco, from March 11 to 24, 2011. Every day four sessions are played, two blindfold and two rapid. The first session starts at 14.30h, the fourth session finishes around 20.00h. The rate of play is 25 minutes per game per player. With every move made in the blindfold games 20 seconds is added to the clock, with every move made in the rapid games 10 seconds is added.

We are through with nine rounds. The surprise in the round was Carlsen losing to Anand his blindfold game but coming back to win the rapid one. This allowed Levon Aronian to increase his lead ahead of Carlsen from half a point to a full point. Aronian beat Vladimir Kramnik 1.5-0.5. But two rounds are still to be played and it's got to be between Aronian and Carlsen. Carlsen leads the remaining pack of players with 1.5 point ahead of Anand, Grischuk and Ivanchuk.

You can find an excellent detailed report of all the games at the official website.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com