Game of the Year -- 12th Place

This is the ninth 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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12th Place: IM Dmitry Zilberstein (SF) vs IM John Bartholomew (DAL) 1-0






















IM Zilberstein had been building up a strong attack against the Black King which he put to fruition with 27. Nf6+! followed by 28. Ng5! after which the f7 weakness forced a fatal loss of material.



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.


FM Robby Adamson (5th Place, 16 points): If you want to see a nice positional squeeze, with the appropriate tactical elements, this is a very instructive game. Dmitry played excellent chess against someone that rarely loses (Bart should have stuck with his usually dependable Scandinavian). This game featured a very topical 3... c5 variation of the Advanced Variation of the Caro-Kann that eventually turned into a favorable 2... Nf6 variation of the c3 Sicilian type of position where Black is worse off than normal. I probably will judge this game higher than most, but I felt Zilberstein played exceptionally well. I award this game sixteen points.



FM Ron Young (11th Place, 10 points): Well played by White and some nice touches at the end. Elegant, sophisticated, and pretty, but I felt it lacked a certain sheer animal magnetism.



GM Alex Shabalov (13th Place, 8 points): Powerful, but too one-sided.



NM Dennis Monokroussos (16th Place, 5 points): Both sides' opening play was a little unconvincing, but after that Zilberstein's play was logical and effective, and there were attractive albeit simple tactical shots towards the end. A good game, though rather one-sided.



WGM Jennifer Shahade (16th Place, 5 points): This is a nice game; I definitely could have ranked it higher, but there were so many good games to choose from and this one didn't seem to have any characteristics special enough to catapult it up my list.


Total Score of Zilberstein vs Bartholomew: (12th Place, 44 Points)


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Stay tuned for ten 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 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 9: NM Mackenzie Molner (NJ) vs IM Larry Kaufman (BAL) 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 #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 #7: IM Bryan Smith (PHI) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0 Article


Eliminated:


12th Place (44 Points): IM Dmitry Zilberstein (SF) vs IM John Bartholomew (DAL) 1-0 Article

13th Place (44 Points): NM Mackenzie Molner (NJ) vs FM Marc Arnold (NY) 1-0 Article

14th Place (43 Points): IM Eric Tangborn (SEA) vs IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) 0-1 Article

15th Place (35 Points): IM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs IM John Bartholomew (DAL) 1-0 Article

16th Place (35 Points): GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs IM Ron Burnett (TEN) 1-0 Article

17th Place (35 Points): IM Jay Bonin (NY) vs NM Mackenzie Molner (NJ) 1-0 Article

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