Amber 2010 (2)
Mixed start for Carlsen at Amber
IM Malcolm Pein - Tuesday 16th March 2010
Vassily Ivanchuk beat Magnus Carlsen 2-0 in the first round of the Amber tournament. Carlsen struck back against Levon Aronian winning 2-0 in Round 2.
Carlsen beat Aronian 2-0 in Round 2 of Amber. Photo © Association Max Euwe. | http://www.amberchess2010.com/
Vasily Ivanchuk used to lose consistently to Magnus Carlsen but after he defeated him at the World Blitz championship at Moscow in 2008 his results improved dramatically although Carlsen won their most recent Classical Chess game at Wijk aan Zee. The pair met in the first round of the 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament at Nice and Ivanchuk defeated the world number one with sight of the board and without.
The twelve player tournament is a double round all play all and there is €216,000 at stake divided between performances in the Rapid and Blindfold and for combined scores. The Blindfold is very entertaining and all six first round games were decisive. Vishy Anand and Veselin Topalov are absent as they are preparing for their world title match which begins on April 23rd. All the players are rated in the world's top 30 except for the Dutchman Jan Smeets.
Round one: Ivanchuk 2-0 Carlsen; Kramnik 1-1 Grischuk; Ponomariov 2-0 Gelfand; Gashimov 1.5-0.5 Dominguez; Svidler 1.5-0.5 Smeets; Aronian 1-1 Karjakin;
Carlsen's opening is a bit offhand and then he grabs a hot pawn. After 16...c4! White cannot castle as Bd3 wins the exchange and his extra pawn is of no value as Black has the centre and coordinated pieces.
M Carlsen - Ivanchuk
Irregular Opening
1.a3 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 d5 4.e3 Bg4 5.h3 Bh5 6.cxd5 cxd5 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.Bb5 Rc8 9.g4 Bg6 10.Qa4 Nd7 11.b4 e6 12.Bb2 Be7 13.Bxc6 bxc6 14.Qxa7 c5 15.Qa6 0-0 16.Qe2 c4 17.e4 d4 18.Nb5 e5 19.h4 Qb6 20.a4 Qb7 21.Ng5 h6 22.h5 hxg5 23.hxg6 fxg6 24.f3 Bxb4 25.Ba3 Bxa3 26.Rxa3 Qb6 27.Qh2 Qc5 28.Qh7+ Kf7 29.Ra1 Nf6 30.Qh2 Ra8 31.d3
Vassily Ivanchuk
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Magnus Carlsen
Position after 31.d3
31...Qxb5 0-1
Carlsen certainly stirred in round two. The Bayonet Attack with 13.g4 can give White complete control of the board unless Black reacts vigorously if Black responds to g4 with f5-f4 then White continues h2-h4 and it is hard for Black to open lines. Carlsen responds by trying to undermine White's structure with c7-c6 and b7-b5 and although Aronian plays b2-b3 b5-b4 dislodges the knight and allows Carlsen a strong sacrifice. A wonderful game played without sight of the board.
L Aronian - M Carlsen
King's Indian Defence
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.d4 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Nd3 f5 11.Bd2 Nf6 12.f3 Kh8 13.g4 c6 14.Kg2 b5 15.b3 a5 16.Nf2 b4 17.Na4 Bb7 18.Rc1 fxe4 19.fxe4 cxd5 20.exd5 Nexd5 21.cxd5 Nxd5 22.Kg1 e4! 23.Nxe4 Bd4+ 24.Rf2 Rxf2 25.Nxf2
(25.Bg5 Be3 26.Bxd8 Rxe2+ 27.Kf1 Rxh2 wins and; 25.Bg5 Be3 26.Bxe3 Rg2+! 27.Kh1 Nxe3 28.Qd4+ Kg8 29.Qxe3 Rxe2 30.Qxe2 Qe7 31.Re1 Re8 is very strong])
25...Qh4 26.Qe1
(But now it's over as because of 26.Be1 Be5! 27.Qd2 Qxh2+ 28.Kf1 Ne3+ 29.Qxe3 Qg2#)
26...Rf8 27.Bf3 Rxf3 28.Qe4 Qxf2+ 0-1
Magnus Carlsen
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Levon Aronian
Final position after 28...Qxf2+ and takes on d2 next move.
David Howell got well in contention at the European Individual Championships at Rijeka in Croatia with a seventh round win. All the top boards ended in draws so Howell's score of 5/7 put him into joint 12th although on tie break he lies 37th. Michael Adams was held to a draw and is 17th, also on 5/7.
The first 22 players qualify for the next World Cup.
