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Viswanathan Anand retained his Amber Title when he came back strongly in the second half to share the title with Alexander Morozevich of Russia on 14.5/22. The event was a two horse race with Morozevich in lead for most of the time. In a season of playing catch up, Anand caught up with Morozevich to share the title in the Euro 216,000 prize money event. Earlier this year, Anand caught up with Topalov to jointly win the Corus Tournament at Wijk aan Zee in January.
Anand, 36, had won this tournament in 1994, 1997, 2003 and also in 2005. Like in most of the occasions, he excelled in the rapid sections. He shared the combined title with Morozevich and took the unshared rapid title. Morozevich took the blindfold title and shared the combined title.
The event is sponsored by J.J.Van Oosterom, a retired Dutch billionaire based at Monte Carlo. It is run in his eldest daughters name "Melody Amber". It was the 15th edition and she completed 15 years.
Anand started with a defeat against Morozevich in the first round and made a comeback with consistent victories. His peak was exactly in the middle of the competition when he blanked Leko 2-0.
It was a 12-player double round robin event held from March 18-30 at the Fairmont Monte Carlo Hotel. The players faced each other first in a blindfold rapid game with 20 seconds increment and again in a rapid control with a ten second increment. Anand will next play in the MTel Masters at Sofia from early May.
Combined Standings: 1-2 Viswanathan Anand (Ind), Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 14.5/22, 3 Francisco Vallejo (Esp) 12, 4 Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 11.5, 5-6 Veselin Topalov (Bul), Peter Leko (Hun) 11 each, 7-8 Levon Aronian (Arm), Boris Gelfand (Isr) 10.5, 9 Loek Van Wely (Ned) 10, 10 Peter Svidler (Rus) 9.5, 11 Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 9, 12 Peter Heine Nielsen (Den) 8.
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