02/05/2007

Game of the Year: 7th Place
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by League Commissioner IM Greg Shahade
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  This is part of a series of weekly articles that will determine what game was voted as the Best Game of 2006. The only games eligible for Game of the Year are the thirteen "Games of the Week". There are four judges ranking the games from 1st to 13th. If a game is ranked as 1st place by a judge, it receives 13 points and if it's ranked 13th place, it receives 1 point and so on. If there is a tie, whichever game had the highest individual ranking will win on tiebreak. Thus if one game is ranked 1st by 2 judges, and another game is ranked 1st only by one judge, the one that is ranked 1st by more judges is awarded the higher position.

 The four judges are:

IM Greg Shahade (USCL Commissioner)
NM Arun Sharma
NM Dennis Monokroussos (Regular commentator for ChessBase.com)
GM Alex Shabalov+WFM Elizabeth Vicary (These two worked as a team to determine their rankings)

7th Place: GM Pawel Blehm (BAL) vs GM Magesh Panchanathan (DAL)  0-1


Blehm vs Panchanathan: Black to move after 24. Bxg6
GM Panchanathan got his first ever USCL win by
playing a stunning sacrifice with 24....Rxf3! and after
25. Bxh7 Kh8 26. gxf3 Bg5 black had a fantastic position.
A truly deep sacrifice that literally none of the observers
expected.



Below are comments from the judges on what position they ranked this game and their reason for doing so, in parenthesis is the ranking given by that judge and the number of points awarded for that ranking:

NM Dennis Monokroussos (1st Place: 13 points): Rxf3 is brilliant, deep and sound. Best of all, the computer ratifies its correctness - but not until several moves later! Adding to the game's value is Blehm's lengthy resistance - the only pity is the blunder at the end.


GM Alex Shabalov and WFM Elizabeth Vicary (6th Place: 8 points):

AS: Another demise of the former Poland number 15.


NM Arun Sharma (9th Place: 5 points): This was an extremely energetic game with 24....Rxf3!! being one of the most surprising moves of the season. Almost everyone felt that Panchanathan was going to accept the draw instead of playing this bold sacrifice. As well as he played the middlegame though, Black's somewhat sloppy technique in the ending, nearly managed to give White serious drawing or winning chances and that is what stopped me from ranking this game higher.


IM Greg Shahade (9th place: 5 points): I also found ....Rxf3 to be a brilliant move, however I ranked the game lowly because I remember feeling that black's endgame technique was terrible. After looking at the game again using Fritz, I realize it probably wasn't as bad as I felt, although it does seem as if black captured on g3 too quickly. I also felt that 37...Bc8 was a easier way to win, giving much less counterplay. Black also missed a few more faster wins along the way, but overall the technique was still enough to win and lead Dallas to a 4-0 victory over Baltimore.

Total Score of Blehm vs Panchanathan: (7th Place, 31 points)
 Stay tuned for 5 more installments as the field dwindles down every Wednesday and one of the games below will be the 2006 USCL Game of the Year!

Week 2: GM Pawel Blehm (BAL) vs GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY)  1/2-1/2         article
Week 4: GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs GM Pawel Blehm (BAL)  1-0    article
Week 5: IM Lev Milman (CAR) vs GM Larry Christiansen (BOS)  0-1     article
Week 7: IM Josh Friedel (SF) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA)  1-0   article
SemiFinals: IM Josh Friedel (SF) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA)   1-0    article
Finals: IM Josh Friedel (SF) vs GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY)   1/2-1/2    article


Eliminated:

7th Place (31 pts): Week 8: GM Pawel Blehm (BAL) vs GM Magesh Panchanathan (DAL)  0-1    article
8th Place (27 pts): Week 9: IM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs IM Georgi Orlov (SEA)  1-0   article
9th Place (26 pts): Week 10: FM William Kelleher (BOS) vs FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat (BAL)   1-0    article
10th Place (18 pts): Week 6: Jose Cabrera (MIA) vs Michael Lee (SEA)  0-1     article
11th Place (14 pts): WildCard: FM Slava Mikhailuk (SEA) vs IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL)   1-0    article
12th Place (12 pts): Week 3: FM Boris Privman (NY) vs NM Ilya Krasik (BOS)  0-1  (Annotated by Ilya Krasik)     article
13th Place (7 pts): Week 1: NM Keaton Kiewra (DAL) vs NM Mark Pinto (SF)  0-1  (Annotated by NM Sharma)

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