Melody Amber: The first week-end

An opening day to forget for Carlsen who went down 2-0 to Vassily Ivanchuk.
With ten decisive results from twelve games one can say that the tournament started with a bang before calming down somewhat on Sunday. Carlsen beat Aronian twice on the second day to get to within one point of the lead.

Saturday results:

Blindfold:

The Blindfold games are played in the afternoon whereas the rapid games follow on in the evening. The blindfold set the tone with no draws at all and notable losses by champion Aronian and surprisingly World number one Carlsen, the latter with the white pieces.

Ruslan PonomariovUKR27481-0Boris GelfandISR2750
Alexander GrischukRUS27561-0Vladimir KramnikRUS2790
Leinier Dominguez PerezCUB27130-1Vugar GashimovAZE2740
Magnus CarlsenNOR28130-1Vassily IvanchukUKR2748
Peter SvidlerRUS27501-0Jan SmeetsNED2651
Sergey KarjakinRUS27251-0Levon AronianARM2782

In the rapid games Ponomariov won with Black against Gelfand, getting the double and a mini-revenge for losing out in their World Cup final match.

The other double of the day was Ivanchuk's shock 2-0 against Carlsen.

Boris GelfandISR27500-1Ruslan PonomariovUKR2748
Vladimir KramnikRUS27901-0Alexander GrischukRUS2756
Vugar GashimovAZE27400.5-0.5Leinier Dominguez PerezCUB2713
Vassily IvanchukUKR27481-0Magnus CarlsenNOR2813
Jan SmeetsNED26510.5-0.5Peter SvidlerRUS2750
Levon AronianARM27821-0Sergey KarjakinRUS2725
Svidler-Smeets
© official site

Sunday results:

Blindfold:

Losses by Aronian and Dominguez leave them stuck at the bottom with 0/2 in the blindfold. Five players managed a win and a draw over the week-end in this discipline.

Levon AronianARM27820-1Magnus CarlsenNOR2813
Jan SmeetsNED26510.5-0.5Sergey KarjakinRUS2725
Vassily IvanchukUKR27480.5-0.5Peter SvidlerRUS2750
Boris GelfandISR27501-0Vugar GashimovAZE2740
Vladimir KramnikRUS27901-0Leinier Dominguez PerezCUB2713
Ruslan PonomariovUKR27480.5-0.5Alexander GrischukRUS2756

Carlsen gets off the mark by beating last year's champion with Black. A relief no doubt for him after yesterday's performance!

Rapidplay:

The recovery continues for the young Norwegian with a second win over Aronian.

Boris Gelfand completed his double over Vugar Gashimov, both Carlsen and Gelfand rebounding from being on the receiving end of whitewashes yesterday.

Magnus CarlsenNOR28131-0Levon AronianARM2782
Sergey KarjakinRUS27250.5-0.5Jan SmeetsNED2651
Peter SvidlerRUS27500.5-0.5Vassily IvanchukUKR2748
Vugar GashimovAZE27400-1Boris GelfandISR2750
Leinier Dominguez PerezCUB27130.5-0.5Vladimir KramnikRUS2790
Alexander GrischukRUS27560.5-0.5Ruslan PonomariovUKR2748

So after the first week-end the points table is as follows. Ponomariov and Ivanchuk have 3/4 with nobody on 100% in either discipline.

RankingSeedNameCountryRatingRapidplay TotalBlindfold TotalOverall Total
1=7Vassily IvanchukUKR27481.51.53
1=9Ruslan PonomariovUKR27481.51.53
3=2Vladimir KramnikRUS27901.512.5
3=5Peter SvidlerRUS275011.52.5
5=1Magnus CarlsenNOR2813112
5=4Alexander GrischukRUS27560.51.52
5=6Boris GelfandISR2750112
5=10Sergey KarjakinRUS27250.51.52
9=8Vugar GashimovAZE27400.511.5
9=12Jan SmeetsNED265110.51.5
11=3Levon AronianARM2782101
11=11Leinier Dominguez PerezCUB2713101

For more information official tournament site


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