Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian continues to top the standings in the Amber Chess Tournament held in Moscow from Mar. 11\u201324.<\/p>\n
In the third round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, Aronian and Magnus Carlsen have taken the joint lead. Their direct encounter ended in a 1-1 tie after a rollercoaster rapid game, which was enough to shake off yesterday\u2019s co-leader Alexander Grischuk. The Russian lost \u00bd-1\u00bd to his compatriot Sergey Karjakin. After three rounds Aronian and Grischuk top the blindfold standings, while Carlsen is first in the rapid competition, according to the tournament’s official website<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n The blindfold game between the leaders Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen was a rather uneventful affair. Aronian regretted his plan with 9.Bc3 and 10.Bb2, which led to a “very boring game.” They played on till move 37 and then, as “there were no breaking points” (Carlsen) they agreed on a draw (0.5\u20130.5).<\/p>\n The rapid game was a draw of a completely different nature. John Nunn rated it high on Aronian\u2019s swindle scale and Carlsen could only shake his head in disbelief and compare the game to a similar experience he had against the same opponent two years ago. After 44 moves the players decided that the rook ending was a draw (0.5\u20130.5).<\/p>\n Currently, Aronian at 2.5 points, is in first place in the blindfold standings (along with Alexander Grischuk) and sharing second place (with Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov) at 2 points in the rapid standings. The Armenian Grandmaster has a combined score of 4.5 points and shares first place with Carlsen.<\/p>\n Today, Aronian will play white in the blindfold game and black in the rapid game against Vasily Ivanchuk.<\/p>\n