Amber chess tournament

The Amber chess tournament (officially the Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess Tournament, previously Melody Amber) was an annual invitation-only event for some of the world's best players, from 1992 to 2011. Since the second edition, the event uniquely combined blindfold chess and speed chess, and has been held in Monte Carlo. The tournament was sponsored by the Dutch businessman and world champion of correspondence chess, Joop van Oosterom. Named after his daughter, the tournament was usually held in March. Her sister was the eponym to the Crystal Kelly Cup.

Vladimir Kramnik won the most overall titles with six. Viswanathan Anand is the only player to have won both the rapid and blindfold events in the same year (he did it twice, in 1997 and 2005). The most rapid events have been won by Anand (nine times), and the most blindfold events have been won by Kramnik (nine times).

Nearly every world class player has played in the tournament but Garry Kasparov.[1] Vassily Ivanchuk is the only player to have played in all 20 editions.

The 20th Amber Tournament was held in 2011 in Monaco, as was the first Amber Tournament.

Winners

# Year Overall Winner Rapidplay Winner Blindfold Winner
1 1992 Vassily Ivanchuk (no blindfold)
2 1993 Ljubomir Ljubojević Ljubomir Ljubojević Viswanathan Anand
Anatoly Karpov
3 1994 Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand
Vladimir Kramnik 		Viswanathan Anand
4 1995 Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Karpov Vladimir Kramnik
5 1996 Vladimir Kramnik Viswanathan Anand
Vassily Ivanchuk 		Vladimir Kramnik
6 1997 Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand
7 1998 Alexei Shirov
Vladimir Kramnik 		Vassily Ivanchuk
Alexei Shirov 		Vladimir Kramnik
8 1999 Vladimir Kramnik Viswanathan Anand Vladimir Kramnik
Alexei Shirov
Veselin Topalov
9 2000 Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov Vladimir Kramnik
10 2001 Vladimir Kramnik
Veselin Topalov 		Boris Gelfand
Vladimir Kramnik 		Veselin Topalov
11 2002 Alexander Morozevich Boris Gelfand Alexander Morozevich
12 2003 Viswanathan Anand Evgeny Bareev Vladimir Kramnik
13 2004 Alexander Morozevich
Vladimir Kramnik 		Viswanathan Anand Alexander Morozevich
14 2005 Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan Anand
15 2006 Viswanathan Anand
Alexander Morozevich 		Viswanathan Anand Alexander Morozevich
16 2007 Vladimir Kramnik Viswanathan Anand Vladimir Kramnik
17 2008 Levon Aronian Levon Aronian Levon Aronian
Vladimir Kramnik
Alexander Morozevich
Veselin Topalov
18 2009 Levon Aronian Viswanathan Anand
Levon Aronian
Gata Kamsky 		Levon Aronian
Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik
19 2010 Magnus Carlsen
Vassily Ivanchuk 		Magnus Carlsen
Vassily Ivanchuk 		Alexander Grischuk
20 2011 Levon Aronian Magnus Carlsen Levon Aronian

Melody Amber 1992

The first tournament was played 3–13 February in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin as a double round robin competition of rapid chess. The first round-robin was won undefeatedly by Viswanathan Anand with a score of 8/11, closely followed by Vassily Ivanchuk with 7.5 points. In the second half of the tournament, Victor Korchnoi appeared the strongest with 7/11. Anand lost three games, which allowed Ivanchuk to take over the lead in the very last round. Ivanchuk scored a total of 14/22. Anand finished second with 13.5 points, while Anatoly Karpov, Victor Korchnoi and Ljubomir Ljubojević shared third place with 12.5/22. Remarkable was the participation of 15-year-old Judit Polgár, who finished 10th.

Final result: 1 Ivanchuk 14, 2 Anand 13.5, 3/5 Karpov, Korchnoi, Ljubojević 12.5, 6/7 Adams, Seirawan 11, 8/9 Piket, Polugaevsky 10, 10/11 Polgár, Speelman 8.5, 12. Larsen 8.

Melody Amber 2006

The competitors in 2006 were the following players (world ranking at the time in brackets).

Melody Amber 2007

The competitors in 2007 were the following players (world ranking at the time in brackets).

Melody Amber 2008

The 17th Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess Tournament took place March 14–28, 2008 in Nice. The competitors were the following (world ranking at the time in brackets).

Tournament books

A book on the first tournament was published in 1992:

In the following six years (1993–1998), tournament books were published on each tournament for that year. The first four were produced by Guido den Broeder, in association with chess grandmasters such as John van der Wiel and John Nunn. The last two were produced by Dagobert Kohlmeyer, in association with John Nunn.

References

  1. ↑ Malcolm Pein. "Looking forward to the 20th Amber Tournament". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 2014-10-19.

External links

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