The Hindu, India
March 28 2009

Levon Aronian retains title

NEW DELHI: Armenia’s Levon Aronian drew his final round games to pip
Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik and defend his title in the
Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament at Nice, France, on
Thursday.

Anand had the consolation of sharing the rapid title with Aronian and
Gata Kamsky. Aronian also shared the blindfold title with Kramnik and
Magnus Carlsen.

Anand blew away his winning chances during the blindfold game against
Wang Yue before emerging stronger in the rapid encounter. Kramnik
finished strongly by blanking Peter Leko 2-0.

The results: Blindfold (11th round): Wang Yue (Chn, 3.5) drew with
Viswanathan Anand (6.5); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 5.5) drew with Levon
Aronian (Arm, 7); Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 5) bt Magnus Carlsen (Nor,
7); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 7) bt Peter Leko (Hun, 5.5); Alexander
Morozevich (Rus, 6.5) bt Gata Kamsky (USA, 3); Sergey Karjakin (Ukr,
4.5) bt Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 5).

Rapid (11th round): Anand (7) bt Wang Yue (4); Aronian (7) drew with
Topalov (5); Carlsen (6) bt Rajdabov (4); Leko (4.5) lost to Kramnik
(6.5); Kamsky (7) drew with Morozevich (4.5); Ivanchuk (4.5) lost to
Karjakin (6).

Final standings: 1. Aronian (14), 2-3 Kramnik, Anand (13.5 each),
4. Carlsen (13), 5. Morozevich (11), 6-7 Topalov, Karjakin (10.5
each), 8-9 Kamsky, Leko (10 each), 10. Ivanchuk (9.5), 11. Radjabov
(9) and 12. Wang Yue (7.5).