CHESS

Aronian Wins the Melody Amber

Fun and money. This in a nutshell is what the Melody Amber rapid and blindfold extravaganza offers to world-class chess players. They just play and let their imagination shine -- no pressure, no rating, no cheating.

It began with the rapid tournament in 1992 as the brainchild of the main sponsor, the Dutch billionaire and correspondence world champion, Joop van Oosterom, who named the event after his daughter. Blindfold chess was added the following year. The 18th Amber competition, with the total prize fund of approximately $292,000 (216,000 euros), finished Thursday in Nice, France. It featured an extraordinary cast of grandmasters, the strongest in the history of the tournament.

Levon Aronian of Armenia clinched the victory with a steady performance in both blindfold and rapid events, scoring a combined 14 points in 22 games. He edged the world champion Vishy Anand of India and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia by a half point. Magnus Carlsen of Norway ended with 13 points. The rest of the field finished as follows: Alexander Morozevich of Russia, 11 points; Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Sergei Karjakin of Ukraine, 10 1/2 points; the American Gata Kamsky and Peter Leko of Hungary, 10 points; Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, 9 1/2 points; Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, 9 points; and Wang Yue of China, 7 1/2 points.

Carlsen led the blindfold competition before the last round, but suffered a devastating loss against Radjabov and was forced to share first place with Aronian and Kramnik, all with 7 points. Kamsky did well in the rapid event, sharing first with Aronian and Anand, also all with 7 points.

A Modern Sacrifice

A pawn sacrifice in the opening can accelerate the game and bring it to the edge. Those who grab the pawn have to catch up developing the pieces and rearranging them for a successful defense. It costs time and a lot of unpleasant things can happen.

Garry Kasparov mastered the pawn sacrifices in openings and in general like no other player, inspiring others to follow in his footsteps. In the victory against Leko, Aronian employed a popular pawn sacrifice in the Queen's Indian defense. The Hungarian was under pressure most of the time, but at one point Aronian missed a smashing knight sacrifice. It did not matter because two moves later Leko blundered and was destroyed with a beautiful rook sacrifice, leading to a mating attack.

Aronian-Leko

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 (The main line in the Queen's Indian defense. Both players prepare the light bishops for the fight on the long diagonal h1-a8.) 4...Ba6 (Aron Nimzovich's little distraction from the 1920s. The usual development 4...Bb7 5.Bg2 Be7 6.0-0 0-0 hit a snag in the 1980s when GM Lev Polugaevsky introduced a powerful pawn sacrifice, 7.d5!? exd5 8.Nh4!?. After 8...c6 9.cxd5 Nxd5 10.Nf5, black's bishop on b7 was locked in and the white pieces swarmed in the center and on the kingside. Over the years, black defenders learned how to deal with it.) 5.Qc2 Bb7 (The white queen does not support the d-pawn anymore and black's light bishop returns to the crucial diagonal.) 6.Bg2 c5 (Challenging white's pawn center at the right moment.)

7.d5!? (An explosive pawn sacrifice, which gained popularity after it was played by the highly talented Spanish grandmaster Vallejo Pons at the Turin olympiad in 2006. It is the only way to fight for the initiative, since after either 7.0-0 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bxg2 9.Kxg2; or 7.dxc5 Bxc5, black has a comfortable game.) 7...exd5 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.0-0 Be7 10.Rd1 (White's pieces are set up for action and little threats creep in. For example, hiding the king 10...0-0 lands black in trouble after 11.Qe4! f5 12.Qc4!) 10...Nc6 (A tactical defense, since 11.Rxd5? allows 11...Nb4. Protecting the bishop with 10...Qc8 is the other popular option. However, black should refrain from building up a pawn center, 10...Nf6 11.Nc3 d5, because after 12.e4 d4 13.e5 Nfd7 14.e6! and black's position collapses, for example 14...fxe6 15.Nxd4! Bxg2 16.Nxe6 Qc8 17.Kxg2 Qc6+ 18.Nd5 with white's advantage; or 14...dxc3? 15.exd7+ Nxd7 16.Bh3! and white should win.) 11.Qa4 (A flexible move, threatening 12.Rxd5 and allowing the queen to operate on both wings.) 11...Nf6 (After 11...Nc7 12.Ne5! black has problems with several crosspins.)

12.Nh4!? (Suggested by the young Israeli grandmaster Maxim Rodshtein, who helped Aronian during the traditional Corus tournament, held in the Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee in January. The knight aims for the square f5 and the bishop on g2 controls much of the long diagonal h1-a8. Previously, white tried to push black back with 12.e4 0-0 13.e5. The highly entertaining game Shirov-Aronian, Elista 2007, continued with 12.Nc3 0-0 13.g4!? Nb4 14.a3 Nbd5 15.Nxd5 Bxd5 16.g5 Bc6 17.Qh4 Ne8 18.Ne5 Bxg2 19.Rxd7, and the queen sacrifice 19...Bb7 20.Rxd8 Rxd8 was good for a draw.) 12...g6 (Preventing 13.Nf5, but weakening the dark squares.) 13.Bh6 Bf8 14.Bxf8 Kxf8 15.Nc3 Kg7 (Apparently, both players reached this position in their home analysis.)

16.Rd6! (A strong rook entry that escaped Leko's attention. Aronian's pieces are swirling near the black king.) 16...Na5 (According to the official site report, both players agreed in the postmortem that 16...Rb8 was the only reasonable move.) 17.Qf4! Bxg2 18.Kxg2 h6 (Defending against 19.Nf5+ gxf5 13.Qg5+ and white wins the piece back with advantage.) 19.Ne4!? (Exchanging a strong defender. The computers suggest a surprising knight sacrifice 19.Nxg6! fxg6 20.Rad1!, threatening to win with 21.Rxf6 Qxf6 22.Rxd7+. White has powerful pressure after either 20...Rf8 21.Ne4!; or 20...Re8 21.e4 followed by 22.e5.)

19...Nxe4 20.Qxe4 Re8? (Allowing a smashing rook sacrifice. Black had to defend his vulnerable kingside with 20...Qe8!) 21.Rxg6+!! (A beautiful strike, adding special magic to 16.Rd6!) 21...fxg6 22.Qxg6+ (The protective pawn shell is gone and black has to decide how is he going to lose. His pieces are hopelessly scattered.) 22...Kf8 (After 22...Kh8 23.Qxh6+ Kg8 24.Qg6+ Kh8 25.Nf5 Re7 26.Qf6+ Kh7 27.Nxe7 wins.) 23.Qxh6+ Ke7 (Black can't hang onto material with 23...Kg8 24.Qg6+ Kf8 25.Nf5 Re7 26.Qf6+ Ke8 because 27.Nd6 mates.) 24.Nf5+ Kf7 25.Nd6+ Ke7 26.Rd1! (The last piece joins the attack and black can't do anything about it.) 26...Rf8 (After 26...Rh8 27.Qg7+ Ke6 28.Qf7+ Ke5 29.Rd5 mates.) 27.Rd5 Rf6 28.Qh7+ Kf8 (Or 28...Ke6 29.Qe4 mate.) 29.Rg5! (The epilogue. Black has no good defense against 30.Rg8 mate.) Black resigned.

Solution to today's study by H.F. Blandford (White: Kd7,Bc3,P:c2; Black: Ka7,Ne1): 1.Bd4+ Ka8! 2.c4 Nd2 3.c5 Nb3 4.c6 Na5 5.c7 Nc6! 6.c8R+! (Both 6.Kxc6? and 6.c8Q+? Nb8+ 7.Kc7 end in the stalemates.) wins.