Ivanchuk catches Carlsen!

Ivanchuk's one-and-a-half points against Gelfand were enough for him to bridge the gap at the top as the Norwegian only managed one from two against Grischuk. Ivanchuk and Carlsen made the majority of their tally in the rapid event, but Grischuk proved to be strongest in the blindfold.

Ivanchuk has competed in all nineteen Melody Amber tournaments, but apart from winning the very first version in 1992 has had to wait eighteen years to get back to the top of the table!

Vugar Gashimov (5)AZE27400.5-0.5Peter Svidler (5)RUS2750
Leinier Dominguez Perez (2.5)CUB27130-1Levon Aronian (4)ARM2782
Ruslan Ponomariov (4)UKR27480.5-0.5Jan Smeets (3.5)NED2651
Boris Gelfand (5.5)ISR27500.5-0.5Vassily Ivanchuk (6)UKR2748
Vladimir Kramnik (5.5)RUS27901-0Sergey Karjakin (5.5)RUS2725
Alexander Grischuk (7)RUS27561-0Magnus Carlsen (6.5)NOR2813

Grischuk's win leaves him with 8/11 in the blindfold, a full one-and-a-half points ahead of his nearest rivals.

Grischuk-Carlsen
© official site.
Peter Svidler (5.5)RUS27500.5-0.5Vugar Gashimov (5.5)AZE2740
Levon Aronian (5.5)ARM27820.5-0.5Leinier Dominguez Perez (2)CUB2713
Jan Smeets (2)NED26510-1Ruslan Ponomariov (3.5)UKR2748
Vassily Ivanchuk(7)UKR27481-0Boris Gelfand (5.5)ISR2750
Sergey Karjakin (5.5)RUS27251-0Vladimir Kramnik (6.5)RUS2790
Magnus Carlsen (7)NOR28131-0Alexander Grischuk (4.5)RUS2756

Both leaders won with White ensuring a tie for this year's rapidplay competition and the overall title.

The battle of the Ks! Karjakin-Kramnik
© official site.

Kramnik lost in the rapidplay but his win in the blindfold along with Grischuk's loss meant that he was able to scrape third place anyway.

Ivanchuk remained unbeaten throughout!

RankingSeedNameCountryRatingRapidplay TotalBlindfold TotalOverall Total
11Magnus CarlsenNOR281386.514.5
27Vassily IvanchukUKR274886.514.5
32Vladimir KramnikRUS27906.56.513
44Alexander GrischukRUS27564.5812.5
510Sergey KarjakinRUS27256.55.512
6=6Boris GelfandISR27505.5611.5
6=5Peter SvidlerRUS275065.511.5
6=8Vugar GashimovAZE274065.511.5
93Levon AronianARM27826511
109Ruslan PonomariovUKR27484.54.59
1112Jan SmeetsNED2651246
1211Leinier Dominguez PerezCUB27132.52.55

For more information official tournament site


Published on , Updated on