Levon Aronian wins 18th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament

18th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament, held in Nice, France is over now. With two draws in the eleventh and final round Levon Aronian has won the 18th 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 and next comfortably drew the rapid game to take the title.

Second place was shared by Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. The World Champion defeated Wang Yue 1½-½, while his predecessor routed Peter Leko 2-0.

In the blindfold competition three players shared first place. Magnus Carlsen, who had long dominated the competition, lost his last game and this allowed Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik to catch up with him.

The rapid competition also ended in a three-way tie for first. This year the best rapid players were Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and Gata Kamsky.

Points:

Levon Aronian -14 points
Viswanathan Anand -13,5 points
Vladimir Kramnik – 13,5 points
Magnus Carlsen - 13 points
Alexander Morozevich - 11 points
Sergey Karjain - 10,5 points
Gata Kamsky – 10 points
Peter Leko – 10 points
Vasily Ivanchuk – 9,5 points
Teimour Radjabov – 9 points
Wang Yue – 7,5 points.

Veselin Topalov – Levon Aronian, blindfold game: 0,5:0,5

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e3 Nd7 8.Bd3 dxc4 9.Bxc4 g6 10.0-0 Bg7 11.Rc1 0-0 12.Bb3 Qe7 13.Na4 Rd8 14.Qc2 Nf8 15.Ne5 Bd7 16.Qc5 Qxc5 17.Nxc5 Rab8 18.f4 Be8 19.Rc2 Nh7 20.Rfc1 Nf6 21.a3 Bf8 22.g3 Kg7 23.Kg2 a5 24.Kf3 b6 25.Nxe6 fxe6 26.Nxc6 a4 27.Nxd8 axb3 28.Rc7 Kg8 29.Nxe6 g5 30.e4 Bd7 31.Nxf8 Bg4 32.Ke3 Re8 33.e5 Nd5 34.Ke4 Nxc7 35.Rxc7 Rxf8 36.d5 Bf5 37.Kd4 Bh3 38.fxg5 Rf2 39.e6 Rd2 40.Ke5 Rxb2 41.Rb7 Rb1 42.e7 Re1 43.Kf6 Rf1 44.Ke5 Re1 45.Kf6 Rf1 46.Ke5 Re1.

Levon Aronian – Veselin Topalov, rapid game: 0,5:0,5

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 b6 9.Bf4 Ba6 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.Rc1 Qd7 12.Ne5 Qb7 13.Qc7 Qxc7 14.Rxc7 Bd6 15.Rc2 Nh5 16.Be3 f6 17.Nd3.