Morozevich and Mamedyarov engaging in a blindfold game
Rapid Results – Round 2
Gelfand-Ivanchuk 0-1
Carlsen-Van Wely 1-0
Aronian-Karjakin 1-0
Leko – Kramnik 0-1
Mamedyarov 0-1 Anand
Topalov 1-0 Morozevich
Official website: http://www.amberchess2008.com/
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Carlsen gets 2 points! His rapid game saw him sacrifice a pawn in a queen gambit and then win a brilliant combination to threaten mate!
As the original post shows, the Melody Amber “blindfold” players each have a monitor displaying an image of an empty board. The text below further describes how the “blindfold” games work at Melody Amber. Technically, I don’t consider this strict blindfold play since the players are staring at an empty board. When Philidor, Morphy, Pillsbury, Alekhine, Koltanowski, etc were displaying their blindfold feats, they were not necessarily wearing blindfolds, but they also were not staring at an empty board which could help them visualize.
In the Melody Amber blindfold games each player has a monitor with an empty chessboard and on this empty board he makes his move with the mouse. When he completed his move, it appears in written form on the opponent’s monitor. The computer also registers the remaining times of the players and shows them on the monitors. When a player oversteps the time limit, the computer announces this. If a player makes an illegal or impossible move – sometimes the players forget the position – the computer gives the message: Illegal move, make another move. It also announces mate and stalemate.
amberchess2008.com has a nice round 1 video showing the blindfold screens.
The grandeur of the opening is in the other video…I couldn’t figure out what the neckties were for–until the end of the video explained it!
A nice Nice tournament!
no stopping King Anand in rapid..may be intel can analyze his brain to make improvements to their processing speed..