page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 66  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Radjabov vs Topalov ½-½ 19 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) C42 Petrov Defense 2. Kramnik vs Morozevich 1-0 45 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) D82 Grunfeld, 4.Bf4 3. Karjakin vs Wang Yue ½-½ 39 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) D18 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Dutch 4. Aronian vs Ivanchuk 1-0 43 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) D97 Grunfeld, Russian 5. Anand vs Leko 1-0 36 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) C95 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Breyer 6. Carlsen vs Kamsky 1-0 34 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) D15 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 7. Kramnik vs Radjabov 1-0 26 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) B30 Sicilian 8. Topalov vs Karjakin 1-0 77 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) C64 Ruy Lopez, Classical 9. Morozevich vs Wang Yue 1-0 53 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) C42 Petrov Defense 10. Ivanchuk vs Carlsen   ½-½ 32 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) D37 Queen's Gambit Declined 11. Kamsky vs Anand ½-½ 44 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed 12. Leko vs Aronian 1-0 18 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) C63 Ruy Lopez, Schliemann Defense 13. Anand vs Carlsen 0-1 34 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) B30 Sicilian 14. Aronian vs Kamsky 1-0 49 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) A15 English 15. Leko vs Ivanchuk 1-0 57 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) B48 Sicilian, Taimanov Variation 16. Wang Yue vs Topalov 0-1 34 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) D30 Queen's Gambit Declined 17. Radjabov vs Morozevich ½-½ 35 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) E54 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Gligoric System 18. Karjakin vs Kramnik ½-½ 27 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) D37 Queen's Gambit Declined 19. Radjabov vs Karjakin 1-0 67 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) C55 Two Knights Defense 20. Morozevich vs Topalov 1-0 44 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) E32 Nimzo-Indian, Classical 21. Kramnik vs Wang Yue 1-0 36 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) D17 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 22. Kamsky vs Ivanchuk   ½-½ 52 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) B90 Sicilian, Najdorf 23. Carlsen vs Leko ½-½ 26 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) B12 Caro-Kann Defense 24. Anand vs Aronian   ½-½ 72 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed 25. Ivanchuk vs Anand ½-½ 28 2009 Amber Tournament (Blindfold) B18 Caro-Kann, Classical  page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 66    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 78 OF 79 ·  Later Kibitzing> Mar-26-09    ceebo: I know it's unfair of me to criticise (I wouldn't have won even if I had two bishops!) but didn't Anand needed to block the c-pawn with a Knight, not his King? Mar-26-09    sheaf: actually if topalov had dont what he was supposed to do then kramnik had a clear chance of winning the tournament..at least shared.. Could it be possible that topalov deliberately didn't win this ?!.. Mar-26-09    Eyal: The endgame explorer shows the attacking side winning a little less than 50% in NN v P endgames: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... Mar-26-09    k0mi: <sheaf: [...] Could it be possible that topalov deliberately didn't win this ?!..> very interesting conspiration. really. I can imagine that's how Topa's mind worked in this case :) Mar-26-09    sheaf: I don't know how to mate with kNN vs KP but the idea is king and Knight pushes the weak king to the corner while the other knight blocks the pawn..and when king has no moves left then the other one comes hopping to mate the king..its not a stalemate as pawn can march and even promote under some conditions.. but i guess the key is to drive the king away from the pawn.. Mar-26-09    Eyal: <I don't think sight of the board matters much at all with so few pieces, but with more time, yes, that's a different thing obviously.> With current time controls, though, even in a classical game there's a good chance that by the stage a NN vs. P endgame is reached, both sides will be playing on increments. Mar-26-09    sheaf: here is a game which illustrates this idea...of course this by no means is an easy task.. C McNab vs M Karttunen, 2006 Mar-26-09    DCP23: <visayanbraindoctor: if you would know anything about the Botvinnik school training their students to win the Troitzky line?> Don't know anything for certain about that, but have a look at the endgame here: E Kovalevskaya vs O Girya, 2007 Keep in mind that Olga Girya is only a 2300 player, and yet the endgame technique is such that many, many non-Russian GMs would envy. She studied at a special chess-oriented live-in school, that much I know, though it's not the Botvinnik school, not even close. Mar-26-09    arnaud1959: <Eyal: The endgame explorer shows the attacking side winning a little less than 50% in NN v P endgames> Once I tried randomly different positions with a tablebase. If the pawn is placed no further than the fifth rank the attacking side wins almost systematically whatever the blocader is, K or N. I tried 6-7 positions I guess. But as soon as I put the pawn on the 6th; the tablebase cannot find a win. Mar-26-09    visayanbraindoctor: <DCP23> Thanks for the answer and the link. Mar-26-09    arnaud1959: <sheaf: I don't know how to mate with kNN vs KP but the idea is king and Knight pushes the weak king to the corner while the other knight blocks the pawn..and when king has no moves left then the other one comes hopping to mate the king..its not a stalemate as pawn can march and even promote under some conditions.. but i guess the key is to drive the king away from the pawn..> True but very difficult to find out how. In some situations The N who blocs the pawn may leave it's square with check. Pushing the King further into a corner and preventing the pawn from advancing. The continuation could be a mate or re-blocking the pawn. Imo the ideal winning method would be to imagine the final position and the last 5-6 moves which lead us to that position. Still not easy! Mar-26-09    hellopolgar: aronian wins amber XVIII. thanks to topa's 2 free draws in the last round. nice try kramnik, you are the best! Mar-26-09    apejan: Topa won in the same place few years ago against Karpov the same KK vs P position: Topalov vs Karpov, 2000 Mar-26-09    ILikeFruits: why is... there no... women in these... tournaments... i hope... fide does not... harbor any... hostile feelings... toward women... girl power... Mar-26-09    Intrepid Spiff: <ILikeFruits> Why do... you... always write... like... this... Mar-26-09    Intrepid Spiff: <ILikeFruits> do you... need... a faster... keyboard... Mar-26-09    Intrepid Spiff: <ILikeFruits> : - ) Mar-26-09    ILikeFruits: hello intrepid... the reason... why i type... like this... is because... -------------- (fill in the blank)... Mar-26-09    Vakus: Great performance for Levon Aronian. Kasparov should be proud of his compatriot's achievement :) Winning two years on end in Blindfold/Rapid/Combined - a record? Mar-26-09    gazzawhite: Some interesting observations: - Anand and Kramnik both had a combined record of 8 wins, 3 losses, 11 draws. - Kamsky came first in rapid and last in blindfold. - Topalov drew more games than anyone else. Mar-26-09    jurado96: I think is Levons'time to rule soon he will be the world champion solid game and great end games player time will tell Mar-26-09    KamikazeAttack: <Anand is incredible. Went into a bad position on purpose and defended it amazingly and now has the initiative. Amazing playa. > Lol, yeah really amazing strategy. Mar-26-09    KamikazeAttack: <DCP23: So! Kramnik does win the blindfold section in the end, though this time it's shared with Carlsen.> Yup. Kramnik wins his second hat-trick in Amber Blindfold chess. First hat-trick - 1998, 1999 2000 Second hat-trick - 2007, 2008, 2009 Mar-26-09    WhiteRook48: so what new tournaments are up? Mar-26-09    sheaf: kramnik and anand had a decent tournament, kramnik played very well in blindfold in the first half and not so good in rapid in the second..but in the second half he played some really good games in rapid as well, last round win against leko was nice, meticulously used leko's passive play against him to score full point.. Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 79) < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 78 OF 79 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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