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Home » Chess News » Events » 20th Amber Tournament 2011 » Amber chess day 1 sees only 2 draws and match wins for Anand and Carlsen

The most anticipated match was that between the young stars Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. The blindfold game finished in a draw but ended comically when both players suffered the same misapprehension as to where black's bishop was. Nakamura earlier had a really nice plus on the white side of a Nimzo-Indian with his 25.Ng5 being flashy but probably not good. Then both sides were convinced the black bishop was on f6 rather than e5 where it had taken a queen (f6 is a nicer square for the bishop according to Carlsen in his video for the official site where he talks through his win in the rapid game). This led to Nakamura leaving a rook (twice) and a bishop (once) en-prise yet untaken.

44.Rc7? Kd8 45.Rd7+ Ke8 46.Rc7? Kd8 47.Rf7 Ke8 48.Bg6? Kd8 49.Be4 Ke8 50.Rxb7 Rxb7 51.Bxb7 Kf8 52.Kg2 g5 53.Kf3 Kg7 54.Kg4 Bc7 55.h4 Bb6 56.f3 Bf2 57.hxg5 hxg5 58.Kxg5 Bxg3 59.f4 Bxf4+ 60.Kxf4 1/2

In the rapid game Carlsen got a an advantage out of the opening and then opened up Nakamura's king for a winning but difficult position for both sides. Carlsen was a rook down at one stage and admitted that although he thought he had everything worked out he didn't, but his feeling about the position was right and eventually he converted.

Magnus Carlsen can obviously explain this game better than I can. See the official video interview where he explains the game to Macauley Peterson.

Video © Association Max Euwe

Alexander Grischuk was better against Vladimir Kramnik but couldn't bring himself to take any action towards realising his advantage as his clock ticked down. Here however he found an amazing queen sacrifice and followed it with the amazing 42.h4 three moves later to win a fine game.

38....Bf5 39.exf5! Re2 40.Ba4 Rxf2 41.Bxe8 Rd2 42.h4!! g6 43.fxg6 Re2 44.Bf7+ Kg7 45.h5 Qc6 46.Re1 Rxe1+ 47.Rxe1 Qd7 48.Kg1 b5 49.axb6 axb6 50.Re8 b5 51.Rb8 Qe7 52.Bxd5 1-0

Peter Svidler on ICC and computers do not like at all Kramnik's 18.Nc6 in this position and soon he was in desperate trouble and Grischuk finished him off for a second time.

Viswanathan Anand put pressure on Veselin Topalov for a long time in a minor piece ending in their blindfold game and although Topalov could have held at the end it was always very difficult. Anand followed this by playing the Lasker Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined as black in the rapids that he had already won twice with against Topalov with. This time the game was a fairly quick draw.

Anish Giri obtained a winning position against Levon Aronian but the Armenian managed to generate complications that confused Giri and eventually turned the position down to a win. The second game followed a similar course where Aronian played creatively in a position that was objectively lost but also a bit of a mess, which suited him more.

27.Qe3

Here 27...Nxg2 would have led to inevitable victory for Giri, instead although white is still considerably worse it is very difficult for black to make progress, especially blindfold, and Aronian turned things round to a win.

27...Bxd5 28.Qxf4 Bg5 29.Qxg5 Qxg5 30.Rxd5 Qg4 31.cxd6 Rfd8 32.Re1 Rbc8 33.Re4 Rc1+ 34.Kh2 Qg6 35.d7 Qh6+ 36.Kg3 Rg1 37.Re8+ Kh7 38.Rxd8 Qg6+ 39.Kf4 Qf6+ 40.Ke3 Qxd8 41.Be4+ g6 42.f3 Rg5 43.Be7 Qb6+ 44.Rd4 Qa5 45.Bxg5 Qxg5+ 46.Kf2 Qd8 47.Bxb7 a5 48.a3 Kg7 49.b4 axb4 50.axb4 f5 51.b5 f4 52.Be4 g5 53.Ke2 Kf6 54.Rd5 Ke6 55.b6 g4 56.fxg4 Kf6 57.b7 1-0

Vassily Ivanchuk blundered into mate in a lost position after being too greedy in capturing queenside pawns on the white side of a Petroff. He also was doing fine as black in the rapid game before just losing his way at the end..

Gelfand had a small edge on the black side of the Petroff Defence when Karjakin made the first of two tactical oversights that dropped a rook in one move, both involved captures being check. The second game Gelfand had already blown a very nice advantage when Karjakin played 39.Qxf2 hitting white's rook, he didn't wait for Qxc4 CHECK to be played before resigning according to the live coverage.

20th Amber Blindfold Monaco (MNC), 12-24 iii 2011															cat. XXI (2770)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2
1.	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2817	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1
2.	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2808	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
3.	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2747	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	.	1
4.	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2733	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
5.	Gashimov, Vugar	g	AZE	2746	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
6.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2815	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	2774
7.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2774	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	2815
8.	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2785	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	0
9.	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2775	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	0
10.	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2779	.	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	0
11.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2776	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
12.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2690	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (March 12, 2011)
Anand, Viswanathan	- Topalov, Veselin	1-0	67	C67	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Aronian, Levon	- Giri, Anish	1-0	57	A29	English Four Knights
Grischuk, Alexander	- Kramnik, Vladimir	1-0	52	D38	QGD Ragozin
Nakamura, Hikaru	- Carlsen, Magnus	½-½	60	E47	Nimzo Indian
Ivanchuk, Vassily	- Gashimov, Vugar	0-1	28	C42	Petroff's Defence
Karjakin, Sergey	- Gelfand, Boris	0-1	37	C42	Petroff's Defence

20th Amber Rapid Monaco (MNC), 12-24 iii 2011															cat. XXI (2770)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2
1.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2815	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
2.	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2808	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
3.	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2747	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	.	1
4.	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2733	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
5.	Gashimov, Vugar	g	AZE	2746	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1
6.	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2817	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	2775
7.	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2775	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	2817
8.	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2785	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	0
9.	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2779	.	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	0
10.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2776	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	0
11.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2774	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
12.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2690	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (March 12, 2011)
Carlsen, Magnus	- Nakamura, Hikaru	1-0	40	D10	Slav Defence
Gelfand, Boris	- Karjakin, Sergey	1-0	39	E54	Nimzo Indian
Gashimov, Vugar	- Ivanchuk, Vassily	1-0	33	B84	Sicilian Scheveningen
Topalov, Veselin	- Anand, Viswanathan	½-½	36	D57	Queens Gambit Lasker's Defence
Kramnik, Vladimir	- Grischuk, Alexander	0-1	33	E71	King's Indian 5.h3
Giri, Anish	- Aronian, Levon	0-1	40	A89	Dutch Leningrad

20th Amber Combined Monaco (MNC), 12-24 iii 2011																				cat. XXI (2770)
					1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12
1.	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2808	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1	2
2.	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2747	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1	.	.	.	.	.	.	2
3.	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2733	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1	.	.	2
4.	Gashimov, Vugar	g	AZE	2746	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1	.	.	.	.	2
5.	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2817	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	1	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1½	2968
6.	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2815	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	½	1	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1½	2967
7.	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2775	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	0	½	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2624
8.	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2774	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	0	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2622
9.	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2785	.	.	0	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	0
10.	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2779	.	.	.	.	.	.	0	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	0
11.	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2776	.	.	.	.	0	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	0
12.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2690	0	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	0

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