What is this? Youtube?

No one gave him a chance against Topalov? If I recall correctly he was the betting favourite. He'll probably finish somewhere around 6th in Amber as predicted by the voters, but he did win 92-11 in votes against Grischuk so the question is what player that gets no respect. Grischuk was in a class of his own in the blindfold section last year and if he just had played rapid on his normal level he would have won easily. Maybe he'll do it this year, maybe not, but 0.74% of the votes sounds low. But apart from Grischuk the votes seem very reasonable to me.

At least I posted before the second game was played :-) But it's not surprising that Grischuk played well in those games, he must have the best stats in the world against Kramnik, counting all formats, in recent years. It's 8-2 in wins after 2003, and 8-4 in all. The second game today was a terrible effort by Kramnik though, he can't have played worse than that in many rapid games.

Couldn´t find anything about Najdorf playing with a board here:
http://www.blindfoldchess.net/blog/2009/04/najdorfs_only_surviving_1947_...

Anyway, my point is still that I am absolutely positive that playing without a board is easier than with. Just as it would be easier to play blindfold, if you were allowed to write down the moves. And that arguing that these are chess-gods that play flawlessly regardless, simply is proved wrong by looking at their games.

Calling what they play in this tournament for "blindfold chess", is very misleading to the common conception of what this basic term means to most chess-players and all non-players.

Who cares about practical stuff in Monaco? If they throw a tournament like this in one of the most expensive places on earth, surely they could accommodate something more than what you can do with fritz at home...

None of the players need the board so it is irrelevant. Any strong chess player can play blindfolded with no board, and these players are the elite.

Werkt bij mij weer voor geen meter :-(