Game of the Year: 2nd Place --------------------------------------------
by League Commissioner IM Greg Shahade
--------------------------------------------
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)
2nd Place: Week 4: GM Julio
Becerra (MIA) vs GM Pawel
Blehm (BAL) 1-0
Becerra vs Blehm: White to move after 22....Ne5
White found the powerful 23. Bg5, completely dismantling
black's position. White eventually won in fine attacking
style.
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 Arun
Sharma (1st Place: 13 points): Though this game might have had
little effect on the overall standings, I couldn't find it lacking in
other regard. It was well played, exciting, the key to Miami's match
victory that week, and fully deserving of the Game of the Year title.
It also contained several nice tactical shots, with 16. Bf5! being one
of the nicest moves of the season.
IM Greg
Shahade(2nd place: 12
points): A very nice and smooth game by Becerra, which would be
great to show one's young students.However it was a bit too one sided
for me to put it in first place. An impressive display by Becerra and
it was play like this that earned him the MVP award.
NM
Dennis Monokroussos (4th Place: 10 points): It was a good game
with a nice idea and thematic attack by White, but there were enough
inaccuracies by both sides - especially Black - to keep it off tmy
medal platform.
GM Alex
Shabalov and WFM Elizabeth
Vicary (4th Place: 10 points):
AS:It was a beautiful
game, 14. Bh6 was fantastic, but honestly I don't think it can be
number 1 because it was too much of a one sided affair. Total
Score of Becerra vs Blehm (2nd place, 45 points) Final
Standings: