Hey everyone!

   OK, it's time to get back to one of the things that I do best, reporting on chess tournaments and events going on around the world. My "come-back" show is the 20th and Final Amber Rapid and Blindfold Tournament which started today in Monaco, with 10 of the 11 highest rated players in the world (12 players overall), including Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Vasily Ivanchuk and World #1 and World Champion, Vishy Anand.

   There are 12 players overall, 3 games in the early group, then 3 games in the later group, which is starting soon. Here is the official site for the event, showing schedules, pairings and even including streaming audio commentary. There is a Rapid and a Blindfold Rapid going on at the same time, both with the 12 competitors playing.

   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 will be played, two blindfold sessions and two rapid sessions. The first session starts at 14.30 hrs. The fourth session finishes around 20.00 hrs. (Note: the final round on March 24 starts at 12.30 hrs. March 16 and 21 are rest days.)

Three games were played today in the early Blindfold Rapid session, already with one notable result.

Here was the 1st round, 1st group pairing schedule:

Naka vs. Mag-Town

Aronian-Giri

Ivanchuk-Gashimov

   Here are the PGNs for the first three games, staring with Naka/Magnus, which opened up in a Nimzo-Indian Rubenstein Variation:

   Next up is the Aronian-Giri game in a English Four Knights opening

   ...and finally, in what I would call an upset, in a Petroff Defence is Ivanchuk and Gashimov, where Gashimov seemed to have handled Vasily in pretty decent fashion.

  So that does for the 1st group of Blindfold games. The second group will be starting soon enough. I will be putting all 4 sessions in separate posts as they are being completed.

Round 1, 2nd Group Blindfold pairings:

Karjakin-Gelfand

Grischuk-Kramnik

Anand-Topalov

  Enjoy! 

   -Mark

  OK, results are starting to filter in for the 2nd group of Blindfold games today and the first one up is Karjakin/Gelfand in a 37 move Petroff Defence game.

Game #2 has just ended with Grischuk getting a victory over Kramnik in a 52 move QGD: Ragozin Defence. Another notable result today:

   Anand/Topalov is now completed, and after 67 moves in a Ruy Lopez: Berlin, Topalov loses once again to the reigning World Champion.

   Now, Group 1 of the Rapid games will be starting soon and here are the pairings for both groups:

Group 1:

Mags/Naka

Giri/Aronian

Gashimov/Ivanchuk

and Group 2:

Gelfand/Karjakin

Kramnik/Grischuk

Topalov/Anand

   The results for each group will be up in its respecte in this thread. 

   -Mark

  OK, now that the 1st group of the Rapid games are done, let's unleash the beast and get them up here in no particular order:

   First off, here is Magnus/Nakamura going at it in a Semi-Slav which ended after 40.Qc6+

  Next up, in a Dutch Defence: Leningrad are Aronian/Giri, which didn't end to well for Anish:

Finally, Gashimov/Ivanchuk, and once again, Chuky falls, this time to a Sicilian Scheveningen:

  The last group of games for today is starting up.

  Here are the pairings:

Kramnik/Grischuk

Gelfand/Karjakin

Topalov/Anand

   The results for these games will be posted in the next post. As usual, I will not post standings until we get more than halfway through the tournament. 

   -Mark

  Now for the final group of the day and one game has already ended after a QGD: Lasker Defence. And that one game is Anand/Topalov:

   Kramnik/Grischuk are up next and Grischuk scores a win in a Modern Benoni game that lasted 33 moves.

   ..and finally for the day, Gelfand vs Karjakin in a Nimzo-Indian Rubenstein:

   Round 2 coverage will start tomorrow at 14:30 Monaco local time (8:30 AM Eastern I think) and I will be bringing you the PGNs/results throughout the tournament. Have a great rest of the day/night wherever you are 

   -Mark