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 is sponsored by the Dutch businessman and world champion of correspondence chess, Joop van Oosterom. Named after his daughter, the tournament is usually held in March.
The player with the most overall titles (as of 2010) is Vladimir Kramnik, 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 be playing in all 20 editions.
The 20th Amber Tournament was held in 2011 in Monaco, as was the first Amber Tournament.
Contents |
| # | Year | Overall Winner | Rapidplay Winner | Blindfold Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1992 | Vassily Ivanchuk | (no blindfold) | |
| 2 | 1993 | Ljubomir Ljubojević | Ljubomir Ljubojevic | 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 [1] |
| 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 [2] |
| 10 | 2001 | Vladimir Kramnik Veselin Topalov |
Boris Gelfand Vladimir Kramnik |
Veselin Topalov [3] |
| 11 | 2002 | Alexander Morozevich | Boris Gelfand | Alexander Morozevich [4] |
| 12 | 2003 | Viswanathan Anand | Evgeny Bareev | Vladimir Kramnik |
| 13 | 2004 | Alexander Morozevich Vladimir Kramnik |
Viswanathan Anand | Alexander Morozevich [5] |
| 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 [6] |
| 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 [7] |
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 Ljubojevic 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, Ljubojevic 12.5, 6/7 Adams, Seirawan 11, 8/9 Piket, Polugaevsky 10, 10/11 Polgár, Speelman 8.5, 12. Larsen 8.
The competitors in 2006 were the following players (world ranking at the time in brackets).
The competitors in 2007 were the following players (world ranking at the time in brackets).
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).
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.