ARONIAN WINS AMBER FOR A SECOND TIME IN A ROW

Chessbase News
d=5317
March 27 2009
Germany

26.03.2009 – Looks like he is pretty good at the blindfold/rapid
thing. Armenian GM Levon Aronian won the 18th Amber Tournament,
after winning the 17th edition last year. Two draws against Veselin
Topalov secured the half-point overall victory. Equal second were
Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, with Magnus Carlsen half a point
behind. Pictures by John Nunn in our final report.

The 18th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament, organized by the
Association Max Euwe in Monaco, is taking place from March 14 (first
round) to March 26 (last round) at the Palais de la Mediterranée,
splendidly located on the famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The
total prize fund is â~B¬ 216,000. 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. Every day four sessions are played: two blindfold
and two rapid games. The first session starts at 14.30h. The fourth
session finishes around 20.00h. (Note: the final round on March 26
starts at 12.30h. March 18 and 23 are rest days).

With two draws in the final round Levon Aronian has won the 11th
Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament. The Armenian grandmaster, who
also triumphed in last year’s Amber, survived scary moments in his
blindfold game against Veselin Topalov, but then comfortably drew the
rapid game to take the title. Second place was shared by Vishy Anand
and Vladimir Kramnik. The World Champion defeated Wang Yue 1½-½,
while his predecessor routed Peter Leko 2-0.