The Amber chess tournament (officially the ''Amber Rapid and Blindfold Chess Tournament'', previously ''Melody Amber'') was an annual invitation-only event for some of the world's best players, from 1992 to 2011. Since the second edition, the event uniquely combined

blindfold chess Blindfold chess, also known as ''sans voir'', is a form of chess play wherein the players do not see the positions of the pieces and do not touch them. This forces players to maintain a mental model of the positions of the pieces. Moves are commun ...

and speed chess, and has been held in

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

. The tournament was sponsored by the Dutch businessman and world champion of

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

, Joop van Oosterom. Named after his daughter, the tournament was usually held in March. Her sister was the eponym to the Crystal Kelly Cup.

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...

won the most overall titles with six.

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...

is the only player to have won both the rapid and blindfold events in the same year (he did it twice, in 1997 and 2005). The most rapid events have been won by Anand (nine times), and the most blindfold events have been won by Kramnik (nine times). Nearly every world class player has played in the tournament but

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

. Vassily Ivanchuk is the only player to have played in all 20 editions. The 20th Amber Tournament was held in 2011 in Monaco, as was the first Amber Tournament.

Winners

Melody Amber 1992

The first tournament was played from 3 to 13 February 1992 in

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (; or ; ; ), simply Roquebrune until 1921, is a Communes of France, commune in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region, Southeastern France, betw ...

as a double round robin competition of rapid chess. The first round-robin was won by

, undefeated with a score of 8/11, closely followed by Vassily Ivanchuk with 7.5 points. In the second half of the tournament,

Victor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (, ; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. He is considered one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Bo ...

appeared the strongest with 7/11. Anand lost three games (including his final round game with white against Larsen), which allowed Ivanchuk to take over the lead in the very last round. Ivanchuk scored a total of 14/22. Anand finished second with 13.5 points, while

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (, ; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, ⁣and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 ...

and

Ljubomir Ljubojević Ljubomir Ljubojević (; born November 2, 1950) is a Serbian chess grandmaster. He won the Yugoslav Chess Championship in 1977 (tied) and 1982. Life and career Ljubojević was born on 2 November 1950 in Titovo Užice, Yugoslavia (now Užice, S ...

shared third place with 12.5/22. Remarkable was the participation of 15-year-old

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the Strong (chess), strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years ...

, who finished 10th. The oldest player in the field was Korchnoi aged 61, while prize money totalled US$100,000 with US$20,000 for the winner. A separate Blitz tournament, with the same participants plus

Larry Christiansen Larry Mark Christiansen (born June 27, 1956) is an American chess player of Danish ancestry. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1977. Christiansen was the U.S. champion in 1980, 1983, and 2002. He competed in the FIDE World Champ ...

and

Susan Polgar Susan Polgar (born April 19, 1969, as Polgár Zsuzsanna and often known as Zsuzsa Polgár) is a Hungarian-American chess grandmaster. Polgár was Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 to 1999. On FIDE's Elo rating system list of July 1984, a ...

, was played on 7 February. Ljubojević won with a score of 10/13.

Tournament books

A book on the first tournament was published in 1992.Erik Bouwmans; et al.,''Melody Amber Rapid Chess Tournament'', Schaaknieuws, 1992, In the following six years (1993–1998), tournament books were published on each tournament for that year. The first four were produced by

Guido den Broeder Guido is a given name. It has been a male first name in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Argentina, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal and Latin America, as well as other places with migration from those. Regarding origins, there ...

, in association with chess grandmasters such as

John van der Wiel Van der Wiel in 1983, thumb John van der Wiel (born 9 August 1959) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. He is a two-time Dutch Chess Champion. Chess career Born in 1959, Van der Wiel won the ''Daniël Noteboom tournament'' in Leiden in 1976 and 197 ...

and

John Nunn John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was form ...

. The last two were produced by

Dagobert Kohlmeyer Dagobert or Taginbert is a Germanic male given name, possibly from Old Frankish ''Dag'' "day" and '' beraht'' "bright". Alternatively, it has been identified as Gaulish ''dago'' "good" ''berxto'' "bright". Animals * Roi Dagobert (born 1964), ...

, in association with John Nunn.

References

External links

Official website for the 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament 2010

Official website of the 20th and final Amber tournament
{{Chess tournaments Invitational chess tournaments 1992 in chess Recurring events established in 1992 Chess in Monaco