It was big-four day at the 20th and final edition of the Amber Blindfold & Rapid Tournament in Monte Carlo, with the two most promising up-and-comers in chess taking on the current world champion and his great predecessor. The leader, Levon Aronian, faced Vladimir Kramnik, while Magnus Carlsen, just half a point behind Aronian, took on World Champion Viswanathan Anand.
Kramnik and Aronian have had some fine battles, but the former has been in abysmal form here. It doesn't seem that Kramnik played so badly in the round, though; Aronian just played better. In the first game, Aronian made a very provocative piece grab, giving Kramnik two pawns and an initiative in return. Kramnik couldn't find a way to sustain it, however, and slowly but surely the fire went out of Black's compensation, and Aronian won. The second game, with Kramnik White, looked like a very well-played draw. This time it was Aronian who sacrificed for compensation - in this case a pawn - and he was able to hold the balance in an Exchange Gruenfeld.
Meanwhile, Carlsen and Anand had exchanged a pair of wins. In the first game, Carlsen repeated the Grand Prix Attack he had used against Topalov, and while it worked against the Bulgarian it was an almost laughable choice against the champ. Anand had a winning or almost winning position while they were still in the opening. Carlsen is who he is for a reason, though, and fought his way back to a (barely) drawn rook ending. Unfortunately for him, he promptly erred again, and Anand converted the point.
In the second game, Anand played 4.Qe2 against the Berlin, and it soon turned into a sort of Steinitz Defense where the light squared bishops get exchanged and White gets an anti-King's Indian pawn triangle in the center (pawns on c4, d5 and e4). Positions of that sort are considered somewhat better for White - essentially, they are favorable King's Indians. The thing about the King's Indian, though, is that even when a lot has gone wrong, there's always the chance of a knockout blow. Anand dithered, neither breaking on the queenside nor damping Black's kingside ambitions, and soon Carlsen broke through, won a couple of pawns and the game.
With two rounds to go, Aronian leads Carlsen by a point and his three next-closest pursuers by a whopping three and a half points. One, Anand, we've already mentioned. The second is Vassily Ivanchuk, who drew twice against Sergey Karjakin. In the second game, he was close to a win for a long time, but the youngster held tight and saved the game in 117 moves. The third member of the chase pack is Alexander Grischuk, who beat Anish Giri 1.5-.5. The blindfold game was a logical draw, and Grischuk quickly won the rapid on the white side of a Gruenfeld when Giri missed some tactics on the a2-g8 diagonal.
A bit further down the crosstable, Vugar Gashimov and Boris Gelfand exchanged wins with the white pieces. Gashimov won an English in the blindfold, but lost a Snake Benoni(!) in the rapid. Finally, Veselin Topalov and Hikaru Nakamura also exchanged wins, though Topalov could have won 2-0. He was winning with Black in the blindfold, but let Nakamura survive and eventually come all the way back. This did not happen in the second game, which won Topalov the game of the day prize. Here's Topalov presenting it:
Combined Standings After Round 9:
1. Aronian 13 (of 18)
2. Carlsen 12
3-5. Ivanchuk, Anand, Grischuk 9.5
6. Gashimov 9
7-8. Nakamura, Topalov 8.5
9-10. Karjakin, Gelfand 8
11. Giri 6.5
12. Kramnik 6
Round 10 Pairings: