- Amber chess tournament
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The Amber chess tournament (officially the Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess Tournament, previously Melody Amber) was an annual invitation-only event for some of the world's best players, from 1992 to 2011. Since the second edition, the event uniquely combined blindfold chess and speed chess, and has been held in Monte Carlo. The tournament is sponsored by the Dutch businessman and world champion of correspondence chess, Joop van Oosterom. Named after his daughter, the tournament is usually held in March.
The player with the most overall titles (as of 2010) is Vladimir Kramnik, with six. Viswanathan Anand is the only player to have won both the rapid and blindfold events in the same year (he did it twice, in 1997 and 2005). The most rapid events have been won by Anand (nine times), and the most blindfold events have been won by Kramnik (nine times).
Nearly every world class player has played in the tournament but Garry Kasparov.[1] Vassily Ivanchuk is the only player to be playing in all 20 editions.
The 20th Amber Tournament was held in 2011 in Monaco, as was the first Amber Tournament.
Contents
Winners
# Year Overall Winner Rapidplay Winner Blindfold Winner 1 1992 Vassily Ivanchuk (no blindfold) 2 1993 Ljubomir Ljubojević Ljubomir Ljubojevic Viswanathan Anand
Anatoly Karpov3 1994 Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand
Vladimir KramnikViswanathan Anand 4 1995 Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Karpov Vladimir Kramnik 5 1996 Vladimir Kramnik Viswanathan Anand
Vassily IvanchukVladimir Kramnik 6 1997 Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand [1] 7 1998 Alexei Shirov
Vladimir KramnikVassily Ivanchuk
Alexei ShirovVladimir Kramnik 8 1999 Vladimir Kramnik Viswanathan Anand Vladimir Kramnik
Alexei Shirov
Veselin Topalov9 2000 Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov Vladimir Kramnik [2] 10 2001 Vladimir Kramnik
Veselin TopalovBoris Gelfand
Vladimir KramnikVeselin Topalov [3] 11 2002 Alexander Morozevich Boris Gelfand Alexander Morozevich [4] 12 2003 Viswanathan Anand Evgeny Bareev Vladimir Kramnik 13 2004 Alexander Morozevich
Vladimir KramnikViswanathan Anand Alexander Morozevich [5] 14 2005 Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand 15 2006 Viswanathan Anand
Alexander MorozevichViswanathan Anand Alexander Morozevich 16 2007 Vladimir Kramnik Viswanathan Anand Vladimir Kramnik 17 2008 Levon Aronian Levon Aronian Levon Aronian,
Vladimir Kramnik
Alexander Morozevich
Veselin Topalov [6]18 2009 Levon Aronian Viswanathan Anand
Levon Aronian
Gata KamskyLevon Aronian
Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik19 2010 Magnus Carlsen
Vassily IvanchukMagnus Carlsen
Vassily IvanchukAlexander Grischuk 20 2011 Levon Aronian Magnus Carlsen Levon Aronian [7] Melody Amber 1992
The first tournament was played 3–13 February in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin as a double round robin competition of rapid chess. The first round-robin was won undefeatedly by Viswanathan Anand with a score of 8/11, closely followed by Vassily Ivanchuk with 7.5 points. In the second half of the tournament, Victor Korchnoi appeared the strongest with 7/11. Anand lost three games, which allowed Ivanchuk to take over the lead in the very last round. Ivanchuk scored a total of 14/22. Anand finished second with 13.5 points, while Anatoly Karpov, Victor Korchnoi and Ljubomir Ljubojevic shared third place with 12.5/22. Remarkable was the participation of 15-year old Judit Polgár, who finished 10th.
Final result: 1 Ivanchuk 14, 2 Anand 13.5, 3/5 Karpov, Korchnoi, Ljubojevic 12.5, 6/7 Adams, Seirawan 11, 8/9 Piket, Polugaevsky 10, 10/11 Polgár, Speelman 8.5, 12. Larsen 8.
Melody Amber 2006
The competitors in 2006 were the following players (world ranking at the time in brackets).
- Veselin Topalov (2)
- Viswanathan Anand (3) Speed chess winner, and joint overall winner.
- Peter Svidler (4)
- Levon Aronian (5)
- Peter Leko (7)
- Vassily Ivanchuk (8)
- Boris Gelfand (9)
- Alexander Morozevich (11) Blindfold chess winner, and joint overall winner.
- Alexander Grischuk (12)
- Francisco Vallejo Pons (54)
- Loek van Wely (59)
- Peter Heine Nielsen (66)
Melody Amber 2007
The competitors in 2007 were the following players (world ranking at the time in brackets).
- Viswanathan Anand (2) Speed chess winner and second
- Vladimir Kramnik (3) Blindfold chess winner and overall winner
- Vassily Ivanchuk (5)
- Peter Leko (6)
- Levon Aronian (7)
- Alexander Morozevich (8)
- Boris Gelfand (10)
- Teimour Radjabov (11)
- Peter Svidler (12)
- Magnus Carlsen (24)
- Loek van Wely (26)
- Francisco Vallejo Pons (29)
Melody Amber 2008
The 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess Tournament took place March 14–28, 2008 in Nice. The competitors were the following (world ranking at the time in brackets).
- Vladimir Kramnik (1)
- Viswanathan Anand (2)
- Veselin Topalov (3)
- Alexander Morozevich (4)
- Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (6)
- Peter Leko (8)
- Vassily Ivanchuk (9)
- Levon Aronian (10)
- Boris Gelfand (11)
- Magnus Carlsen (13)
- Sergey Karjakin (14)
- Loek van Wely (35)
Tournament books
A book on the first tournament was published in 1992:
- Erik Bouwmans; et al.,Melody Amber Rapid Chess Tournament, Schaaknieuws, 1992, ISBN 90-73216-08-7
In the following six years (1993–1998), tournament books were published on each tournament for that year. The first four were produced by Guido den Broeder, in association with chess grandmasters such as John van der Wiel and John Nunn. The last two were produced by Dagobert Kohlmeyer, in association with John Nunn.
References
- ^ chess.co.uk; Looking forward to the 20th Amber Tournament; accessed 11 March 2011
- Crowther, Mark (29 March 1999), THE WEEK IN CHESS 229: The Eighth Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament, London Chess Center, http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic229.html#2
External links
Categories:- Chess competitions
- 1992 in chess
- Recurring events established in 1992
- Chess in Monaco
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