Update March 5, 2010
Today Alexander Morozevich informed the organizers of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament that much to his regret he was forced to withdraw from the tournament for private reasons. Alexander Grischuk has accepted the invitation to come to Nice at such short notice to replace his countryman. Alexander Grischuk is the reigning Russian champion and is the current number 7 in the world rankings.
March 13-25, 2010, Nice, France
The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament, organized by the Association Max Euwe in Monaco, takes place from March 13 (first round) to March 25 (last round) at the Palais de la Mediterranée, splendidly located on the famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The total prize-fund is € 216,000.
The twelve participants are (in alphabetical order): Levon Aronian (Armenia), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov, Jan Smeets (The Netherlands) and Peter Svidler.
Every day four sessions will be played, two blindfold sessions and two rapid sessions. The first session starts at 14.30 hrs. The fourth session finishes around 20.00 hrs. (Note: the final round on March 25 starts at 12.30 hrs. March 17 and 22 are rest days.)
http://www.amberchess2010.com/
I hope he’s OK.