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Friday, March 25, 2011

Aronian wins 20th and final edition of Amber Blindfold & Rapid Chess Tournament

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

Hello everyone,

Congratulations to Levon Aronian for winning the 20th and final edition of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament. In the blindfold session of the last round, he drew against Sergey Karjakin while his main rival Magnus Carlsen lost to Boris Gelfand. This decided everything: Aronian also became the winner of the Blindfold tournament and Carlsen finished first in the Rapid.

Aronian was in the saddle since the very start to a beautiful victory and he never really gave anyone else the chance to catch up.


The 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament took place at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort in Monaco, from March 11 to 25, 2011. The tournament was organised by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco. This 20th Amber tournament was the final edition of an event unparalleled in the history of chess. The total prize-fund was € 227,000. The rate of play was 25 minutes per game per player. With every move made in the blindfold games 20 seconds were added to the clock, with every move made in the rapid games 10 seconds were added.

You can find all the details and photos of the excellent chess tournament at the official website. It's a pity it would not be held any more. Here are the final standings:

Final Standings:
 
Blindfold
1. Aronian
2. Anand 7
3. Gashimov 6
  Gelfand 6
  Grischuk 6
4. Karjakin
5. Carlsen 5
  Ivanchuk 5
  Nakamura 5
6. Topalov
7. Kramnik 4
8. Giri
Rapid
1. Carlsen
2. Aronian 7
3. Anand 6
  Ivanchuk 6
  Topalov 6
4. Nakamura
5. Grischuk 5
6. Gashimov
  Gelfand
  Karjakin
7. Kramnik 4
8. Giri
Combined
1. Aronian 15½
2. Carlsen 14½
3. Anand 13
4. Grischuk 11
  Ivanchuk 11
5. Gashimov 10½
  Gelfand 10½
  Nakamura 10½
  Topalov 10½
6. Karjakin 10
7. Kramnik 8
8. Giri 7

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

2 comments:

  1. Saira Fernandes, MadridMarch 25, 2011 at 8:36 AM

    Congrats to Aronian. Too bad my hero didn't win. My dearest Carlsen. Shrug. Now time to cheer for Chess Queen in her next tourney soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sebastian Wolff, MarylandMarch 25, 2011 at 8:39 AM

    Too bad this event is not going to be held any more. Twenty years gone by. Amazing.

    ReplyDelete

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