Game of the Year -- 18th Place

This is the third part in a weekly series of articles which will count down to revealing what game was voted as the 2007 USCL Game of the Year. For more information on exactly how this process works and the prize information, please refer to: Game of the Year Preview.


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18th Place: FM Slava Mikhailuk (SEA) vs IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) 0-1






















IM Schroer uncorked the powerful 31... Nd3!, exploiting FM Mikhailuk's overzealous 31. h4?, after which the numerous threats were too much for White to handle.



Below are the comments from the judges on why they ranked the game where they did and in parentheses is the ranking given by that judge and the number of points awarded for that ranking.


WGM Jennifer Shahade (8th Place, 13 points): The tactic was hard to find, particularly because the position was far from clear after it. Some judges may take points off for a sacrifice if it's not 100% sound, but for me this added points because it took guts to go for it.



FM Ron Young (13th Place, 8 points): When I was playing one of the kids at a chess camp some years back, the kid said "Oh, coming in with your pieces again. That’s all you know how to do." One could make the same criticism of Schroer from this game. But even Billy (the Kid) was forced to concede "I guess you could say that it wins".



GM Alex Shabalov (16th Place, 5 points): Final attack by Black is very pretty, starting with the brilliant 31... Nd3! However, the star move 28... f3 was not enough to save the game after the experimental 11... f5 went sour.



FM Robby Adamson (19th Place, 2 points): This ranking might surprise some because the last few moves had some sexy tactics from Schroer. The reason this game was not awarded more points is because Mikhailuk outplayed Schroer for most of the game, only to falter at the end in time pressure. I must say though that Schroer did a good job of keeping the game complicated enough such that Mikhailuk had to use more time than he probably would have liked. If the game had been a little "closer", I would have ranked it higher. In any event, I gave it two points.



NM Dennis Monokroussos (19th Place, 2 points): I liked Schroer’s creative kingside attack, but both 31. h4 and 32. Qxd3 were very serious errors.


Total Score of Mikhailuk vs Schroer: (18th Place, 30 Points)


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Stay tuned for sixteen more such articles as the field shrinks by one game each week to see which of the following games will be the 2007 Game of the Year!


Week 2: IM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs IM John Bartholomew (DAL) 1-0 Article

Week 3: IM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs GM Hikaru Nakamura (NY) 1-0 Article

Week 4: GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) vs GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) 0-1 Article

Week 6: GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs GM Patrick Wolff (SF) 1-0 Article

Week 7: IM Lev Milman (CAR) vs IM Ron Burnett (TEN) 0-1 Article

Week 8: GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs IM Ron Burnett (TEN) 1-0 Article

Week 9: NM Mackenzie Molner (NJ) vs IM Larry Kaufman (BAL) 1-0 Article

Week 10: IM Jay Bonin (NY) vs NM Mackenzie Molner (NJ) 1-0 Article

Wildcard Round: FM Marcel Martinez (MIA) vs IM Dmitry Zilberstein (SF) 1-0 Article

Semifinals: GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs IM Drasko Boskovic (DAL) 0-1 Article

Championship: SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) 1-0 Article

Wildcard #1: IM Dmitry Zilberstein (SF) vs IM John Bartholomew (DAL) 1-0 Article

Wildcard #2: GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs GM Alex Stripunsky (QNS) 1-0 Article

Wildcard #3: IM Josh Friedel (SF) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA) 1-0 Article

Wildcard #5: IM Eric Tangborn (SEA) vs IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) 0-1 Article

Wildcard #6: NM Mackenzie Molner (NJ) vs FM Marc Arnold (NY) 1-0 Article

Wildcard #7: IM Bryan Smith (PHI) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0 Article


Eliminated:


18th Place (30 Points): FM Slava Mikhailuk (SEA) vs IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) 0-1 Article

19th Place (29 Points): IM Josh Friedel (SF) vs IM Lev Milman (CAR) 0-1 Article

20th Place (7 Points): IM Jay Bonin (NY) vs NM Denys Shmelov (BOS) 1-0 Article