The Melody Amber has always been played in a relaxed joyous atmosphere. The world's best meet in luxurious conditions on the Riviera, at an unusual format, for a very generous fund, without risking rating points.
This year however, there is a tinge of sadness. This is the 20th and final edition of the event Dutch telecom billionaire Joop Van Oosterom (the world correspondence champion) launched to celebrate the birth of his daughter, Melody Amber.
The format is rapid play mini-match format, with one set of games at "blindfold". This is mandated by custom software that scores and checks for illegal moves. Players click moves onto blank boards. Apart from the high decision ratios imposed by rapid controls, blindfold often triggers hilarious errors. Even 2700+ players can forget where the pieces are placed, especially in long endgames with pieces making many tempo moves.
Sadly, 2011 indicates that chess sponsorships have a lagged relationship with global economics. This is not so surprising, assuming sponsors plan spends in advance. Top-level events such as Linares, Sofia and Mainz have been cancelled for lack of funding. Now, Amber is winding down and Aeroflot may struggle to support the 2012 event.
So enjoy Amber while it lasts - it has a great website and superb video commentary. The 2011 edition cast is Anand, Carlsen, Aronyan, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Topalov, Nakamura, Grischuk, Gashimov, Gelfand and Giri. That's nine of the top 10, 11 of the top 20 plus no:43 Giri. After the first four mini-matches (8 games) Carlsen and Aronyan lead with 6 points each while Anand is close behind on 5.5.
Meanwhile the Reykjavik Open concluded with six players tied for first with 7 points from 9 games. That list of co-winners includes the 14-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk who logged a 2688 performance. This event was sponsored by Deloitte and it's also the Nordic championship - Jon Ludvig Hammer, who was one of the co-champions won that section.
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The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Nakamura Vs Carlsen, Amber 2011) illustrates how even top players can err at blindfold and in fact, it can be used as a deductive problem. Assume the world no:2 and no: 8 are not ingesting hallucinogens and change the location of one piece so that the following play is absolutely normal with no blunders. What piece and where?
Play went 44.Rc7?? Kd8 ?? 45.Rd7+ Ke8 46.Rc7?? Kd8 ?? 47.Rf7 Ke8 48.Bg6+?? Kd8 ?? The game continued 49.Be4 Ke8 50.Rxb7 Rxb7 51.Bxb7 Kf8 52.Kg2 g5 53.Kf3 Kg7 54.Kg4 Bc7 55.h4 Bb6 56.f3 Bf2 57.hxg5 hxg5 58.Kxg5 Bxg3 59.f4 Bxf4+ 60.Kxf4 ½-½. The answer to the question is that both players thought the black Bishop was on f6 and not e5.