ARONIAN BEATS WORLD CHAMP
AZG Armenian Daily
21/03/2006
15th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament kicked off in Monte
Carlo last weekend. At this unique tournament each player meets his
opponent twice over the board – first time in a rapid chess game
(25 minutes per player) and then in a game of blind chess (without
looking at the board). The sponsor and organizer of the tournament
is Dutch billionaire and chess enthusiast Joop van Oosterom. The
tournament fund amounts to 216.000 euros.
This is the first performance for the recent Linares tournament winner,
Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian.
Levon performs successfully so far despite the only defeat at the
hand of Loek van Wely of Holland. After the draw in rapid against
FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov, Levon beat the Bulgarian in
blind chess. With 2.5 points after two rounds Aronian leads the
field together with Topalov, Peter Leko, Aleksandr Morozevich and
Francisco Vallejo. Only Aronian and Topalov have scored two victories
so far. Moreover, Aronian is first in rapid chess with a 100% result.