Levon Aronian drew twice against Sergey Karjakin - and was close to winning the first game - and thereby secured first place in the 20th and final Amber Blindfold & Rapid tournament in Monte Carlo. This was his third victory in this tournament, which he also won in 2008 and 2009. He clinched first after the blindfold round when Magnus Carlsen lost an amazing game to Boris Gelfand. Carlsen played extremely aggressively, but Gelfand was up to the challenge and played a long stretch of perfect moves to obtain and maintain the advantage. Carlsen's 23.Kg2 was just about the breaking point; after that, it was more or less Gelfand's game to win, and he did. Carlsen did win the rapid game, winning with remarkable ease on the black side of a Benko Gambit.
Carlsen's performance in the blindfold was pretty mediocre, as he only managed a -1 score in that discipline. In the rapid it was another story, as he achieved a fantastic 3075 TPR going 9.5/11, losing just the one game to Ivanchuk. Aronian's 7 points were good enough for clear second in the rapid, and his 8.5 points put him a point and a half ahead of Anand in the blindfold. Anand tied for third in the rapid, from which it obviously follows that he took third place overall. He finished the tournament the right way, too, going 2-0 against Anish Giri, who finished the event alone in last place. Someone had to, and as the youngest and lowest-rated player in the event it's neither a surprise nor a tragedy for him to do so. If there would be future editions of the tournament, his placement would no doubt improve considerably.
In other matches, Veselin Topalov drew the blindfold game and beat him in the rapid. Vladimir Kramnik and Hikaru Nakamura exchanged wins, and in both cases it was with the black pieces that they triumphed. The rapid game was especially lively, with Nakamura adding another spectacular win in the Classical King's Indian to his résumé. Finally, as if to punish the organizers (either for trying to finish the day's play earlier than usual or for ending the tournament), Vugar Gashimov and Alexander Grischuk played a total of 279 moves in their two games: the first went 140 moves, the second 139. Both times it was Grischuk in the role of Grand Inquisitor, and both times Gashimov survived the rack (or was it the comfy chair?) and drew.
Final Blindfold Standings:
1. Aronian 8.5 (out of 11)
2. Anand 7
3-5. Gashimov, Gelfand, Grischuk 6
6. Karjakin 5.5
7-9. Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Nakamura 5
10. Topalov 4.5
11. Kramnik 4
12. Giri 3.5
Final Rapid Standings:
1. Carlsen 9.5 (out of 11)
2. Aronian 7
3-5. Anand, Ivanchuk, Topalov 6
6. Nakamura 5.5
7. Grischuk 5
8-10. Gelfand, Gashimov, Karjakin 4.5
11. Kramnik 4
12. Giri 3.5
Final Combined Standings:
1. Aronian 15.5 (out of 22)
2. Carlsen 14.5
3. Anand 13
4-5. Grischuk, Ivanchuk 11
6-9. Gashimov, Gelfand, Nakamura, Topalov 10.5
10. Karjakin 10
11. Kramnik 8
12. Giri 7
There aren't any new videos up on the site, but if and when that changes, I'll post them if I can.