Amber impressions by Fred Lucas
General info
The 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament takes place at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort in Monaco, from March 11 to 25, 2011. The tournament is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco. This 20th Amber tournament is the final edition of an event unparalleled in the history of chess. The total prize-fund is € 227,000. 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. Full schedule here.Photos by Fred Lucas
Sand artist Kseniya Simonova performing at the opening ceremony...
The Ukrainian lady, winner of 'Ukraine Got Talent' in 2009, creates rapidly changing drawings by dropping sand from her hands...
...which results in images like this one
Magnus Carlsen
Alexander Grischuk
Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik
Viktor Korchnoi
Levon Aronian, Vugar Gashimov, Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri
Vlastimil Hort
Can you recognize these players?
Vugar Gashimov
Genna Sosonko and Viktor Korchnoi
Levon Aronian and his father, arriving at the playing hall, with images of Mr. and Mrs. van Oosterom
Anish Giri
Veselin Topalov
Boris Gelfand
Hikaru Nakamura