Anand wins Tal Memorial Blitz

Today Vishy Anand won the Tal Memorial Blitz tournament in Moscow. He grabbed the title of the, with 18 super grandmasters, probably strongest blitz tournament ever held, with 23 points out of 34 games. Levon Aronian, last week shared first in the big tournament, became second; Peter Svidler and Teimour Radjabov equal third and fourth. It's a shame, not to say completely ridicoulous, that the event was not broadcast online.

Full final results of the Tal Memorial Blitz:

Place Name                   Fed. FIDE  Total  S.B. 
 1    Anand, Viswanathan     IND  2779  23.0  376.00 
 2    Aronian, Levon         ARM  2741  21.0  342.25 
 3    Radjabov, Teimour      AZE  2729  20.5  324.75 
 4    Svidler, Peter         RUS  2750  20.5  321.50 
 5    Ponomariov, Ruslan     UKR  2703  19.5  319.50 
 6    Morozevich, Alexander  RUS  2747  18.0  305.25 
 7    Grischuk, Alexander    RUS  2710  18.0  289.75 
 8    Gelfand, Boris         ISR  2733  18.0  277.00 
 9    Carlsen, Magnus        NOR  2698  17.5  283.25 
10    Karpov, Anatoly        RUS  2668  17.5  278.00 
11    Karjakin, Sergey       UKR  2672  17.0  290.75 
12    Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE  2728  17.0  282.75 
13    Polgar, Judit          HUN  2710  17.0  271.50 
14    Leko, Peter            HUN  2741  16.5  274.00 
15    Jakovenko, Dmitry      RUS  2671  15.5  238.50 
16    Bologan, Viktor        MDA  2659  10.5  182.50 
17    Timofeev, Artyom       RUS  2662  10.0  152.75 
18    Jobava, Baadur         GEO  2650   9.0  148.00

Anand again emphasizes his supremacy in fast chess. He's not only known for playing quickly during regular games, but also in rapid chess he's very successful, e.g. at all those Melody Amber tournaments in Monaco. And it was no surprise that Aronian showed his natural talent at this little tournament as well. Disappointing results for Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Peter Leko. Well, blitz isn't everyone's cup of tea.

So no games. We have to be satisfied with a bunch of photos (some quite funny I must say) here, here, here and here.