Amber Super Blindfold and Rapid Tournament
Sunday March 16 – Round 2
Blindfold
Ivanchuk-Gelfand 1/2-1/2
Van Wely-Carlsen 0-1
Karjakin-Aronian 1/2-1/2
Kramnik-Leko 1/2-1/2
Morozevich -Topalov 1-0
Anand-Mamedyarov 1/2-1/2
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Interesting blindfold monitor story from last year’s 2007 Amber Blindfold tournament at amberchess2008.com
“Magnus Carlsen started his blindfold game against Loek van Wely with an unusual request. To understand what he was asking we should explain that in the blindfold games the players have a choice. If you are playing with the black pieces you can ‘turn around the board’ and play with the black pieces at the bottom of the screen. Some players don’t care about this possibility, others find it more convenient to have the pieces just like they would have them ‘in real life’. Magnus was the first player ever to ask to play with the white pieces at the top of the screen although he was White! In the game Carlsen may soon have gotten the idea that turning the board around and continuing with black would not be such a bad plan.”