Monte Carlo: Vishwanathan Anand begins his campaign as hot favourite to win the 12th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament that gets under way on Sunday.

The tournament has the unique status of being the only top event wherein Blindfold games are played. All the 12 participants will play two games each, one under rapid chess rules and the other under blindfold.

Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia is the top seed for the event and the duel between him and Anand will be interesting to watch. Equally so with other games as some big names in the business will slug it out for the $ 193,500 prize money.

The Blindfold games, played on computer screens, will be the highlight of the tournament. The computer screen will show only the last move played and on confirmation on receiving the move by the player, it will disappear and the clock of player-to-move will begin ticking.

Anand, the overall winner in 1994 and 1997 has some happy memories of the event. He annexed all the three titles – Rapid, Blindfold and overall – in 1997 and positive results against relatively weaker opponents will be crucial as he has the reputation of being one of the better players of the Rapid variety.

PTI