Aronian beats Carlsen, joins Kramnik in the lead

After the first rest day, the Amber tournament resumed today with the 5th round. In his rapid game against Carlsen, Aronian snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and now the Armenian leads the combined standings together with Kramnik, who drew twice with Topalov. And... Wang Yue won his first game of the tournament, with Black against Radjabov.

The 18th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament, organized by the Association Max Euwe in Monaco, takes place from March 14 (first round) to March 26 (last round) at the five-star hotel Palais de la Mediterran?©e, splendidly located on the famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France. The total prize-fund is ‚Ǩ 216,000 and this year‚Äôs field is stronger than ever with all the world‚Äôs best players taking part.
Round 5

Blindfold games:		Rapid games:

After a rest day that consisted of the traditional laser game and casino dinner party in the evening (where Karjakin busted the bank at the roulette table) the tournament resumed with the fifth round on the program.

Wang Yue started with a very quick draw against Radjabov; apparently the Chinese, who is a bit on his own during this tournament (he didn't bring anyone accompanying him), still doesn't feel too comfortable with blindfold chess. Or did he want to save energy for his rapid game?

Although we wouldn't like to focus too much on it, we do take note that Topalov and Kramnik, who faced each other in this fifth round at Amber, still do not shake hands, not even in a friendly atmosphere like this. What they did do is create a good fight at the virtual board of their blindfold game which resulted in a position in which both players couldn't really avoid a repetition of moves. It was Topalov who had to be disappointed this time (and he certainly was), because his position looked highly promising around move 30.

Morozevich admitted that his victory over Karjakin had come after many mistakes. "Black is OK after the opening, but after 14.Bxb4 I got confused and thought for about ten minutes." He then missed a few opportunities for an advantage, after which White took over the initiative. "His last mistake was probably 30.Rf3; he must have missed my trick on e5." The fact that Karjakin finished with the typical blindfold megablunder didn't really change the verdict of the position this time.

Aronian-Carlsen was a difficult game; Ljubojevic thought White was the one who had to be careful but Aronian himself didn't think he was worse anywhere. He said he should have played 12.Ne3 instead of 12.Na3. "Black was OK there, but when he allowed me to play my rook to d6 I was better again." Perhaps White should have tried 25.Bxc5 although Black must be very close to a draw even there.

Ivanchuk-Anand was quickly drawn and this was a small surprise, since the World Champion seemed a bit better in the final position after 28...Nxf4 29.gxf4 Rc8. However, he felt the doubled f-pawns might be to White's advantage in this position because of possible attacking chances.

Leko escaped with a draw against Kamsky after Black was better despite having knight against bishop, but the distant passed pawn was a big asset of course, but not enough to win. Kamsky afterwards asked Ljubojevic: "Did I miss anything, Ljubo?" to which the former world's number three answered negatively. "OK, than I can go," the American smiled.

In the first rapid session, Kramnik and Topalov also drew their second game but Wang Yue finally won a game at Amber, and even with the black pieces. Radjabov certainly missed the draw at some points and the final pointe in the rook ending was highly instructive: with a g-pawn it would have been a draw, but by keeping the pawn on the f-file it's winning (because in the final position that pawn will simply run to f3).

Karjakin scored an excellent win over Morozevich in the first rapid session. After the game he thought White could have saved himself with 36.c7 Nxc7 37.Rc4, but the computer finds a way to stay a pawn up: 37...Rxc4 38.Kxc4 Nb5! 39.Rxa4 Rc7+ 40.Kb3 Rc3+. In the game Karjakin won showing excellent technique, while profiting from the fact that Morozevich was in timetrouble.

Anand won a nice game with White against Ivanchuk playing the sharp Winawer French. "F5 was cute, but things remained unclear till almost the very end. Maybe the computer will laugh at us," the Indian said. Ivanchuk was clearly taken aback when 37.h5+ was played, and then missed a chance to complicate with 43...Nh2.

Kamsky is still not a main line kind of guy but his positional play again fully compensated against rocky solid Leko (in fact, "Peter" means rock...!). In the end the Hungarian was hoping for one of those famous bishop fortresses, but this position wasn't one of them.

Carlsen then lost an ending that had started as almost winning for him. "I knew that I didn't deserve to win this one but I was happy with how I fought back," Aronian said. He had all the reason to be happy, finding himself next to Kramnik on top of the combined standings.


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Links

• Official website
• Chess.FM blog
• Games in PGN: blindfold | rapid