This is the first part in a series of articles which will count down to revealing what game was voted as the 2008 USCL Game of the Year. The eligible entrants are the thirteen Games of the Week along with the seven Wildcards (full list). There are five judges who ranked the games from 1st to 20th. If a game is ranked in 1st place by a judge, it receives 20 points, if it's ranked 2nd place it receives 19 points, and so on with 20th place receiving 1 point, and the games are then ranked on their total number of points. If there is a tie at a certain total, whichever amongst those games have higher individual rankings will win on tie-break (e.g. a game which gets a 1st + 4th ranking is higher than a game which gets a 2nd + 3rd).
The five judges are:
IM Ben Finegold
GM Jan Gustafsson
FM Ingvar Johannesson
FM Daniel Ludwig
FM Ron Young
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20th Place: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs IM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) 1-0
After a solid game by both players, Black finally cracked in time pressure with 38... Nf6?? where 38... Bd4 would have kept the game fairly level.
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.
IM Ben Finegold (15th Place, 6 points): A very good game, marred, I assume, by time trouble. White is better throughout, but Black defends well, and, just as the game is equal, Black makes the time trouble error 38... Nf6?? Instead, 38... Bd4 would just have been equal. Otherwise, a great game.
GM Jan Gustafsson (15th Place, 6 points): I'm not overly impressed with this game either. In the mainline KID Black plays the quite uncommon 10... c5, trying to lock the Queenside and stopping White's main plan of pushing c5. It does allow White to open lines over there easily though, and I think Ehlvest got an edge playing natural moves. After 18. exf5!, I dislike 18... gxf5 as played (yeah yeah, every Russian school boy knows one should recapture with the g-pawn), but 18... Nxf5 looks sounder to me anyways. In the game, Ehlvest keeps the initiative and gets the two Bishops playing good positional chess, but errs with 34. Bf4, when after 34... Qh7! Black seems back on track. Later the outcome is decided by the (time-trouble?) blunder 38... Nf6?, when 38... Bd4 should have been fine. A solid game by Ehlvest, but not enough beauty (whatever that is in chess) or entertainment to rank it higher.
FM Ron Young (17th Place, 4 points): Some nice maneuvering by White, but pieces dropping with check mars the game's artistic impression.
FM Ingvar Johannesson (20th Place, 1 point): White holds on to a very tiny edge throughout which doesn't seem enough for a win, but Ehlvest shows nice tenacity and takes home the point. Other than being important to win in the end this game didn't do much for me, and I found it clearly the "worst" of the bunch.
FM Daniel Ludwig (20th Place, 1 point): I just wasn't impressed at all. Perhaps most people felt that the final result came about due to incredible technique by Ehlvest, but that couldn't be further from the truth. On move 38, the game was still dead even, however, Barcenilla responded with two terrible moves that resulted in immediate resignation. I was hoping for more from Ehlvest, especially considering that he had a sizable advantage earlier in the game.
Total Score of Ehlvest vs Barcenilla: (20th Place, 18 Points)
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Stay tuned for eighteen more such articles as the field shrinks by one game almost every day to see which of the following games will be the 2008 Game of the Year!
Week 1: GM Alex Shabalov (NY) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 0-1 Article
Week 2: GM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0 Article
Week 3: GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) 1-0 Article
Week 4: IM Lev Milman (CAR) vs GM Alex Shabalov (NY) 1-0 Article
Week 5: SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs IM David Pruess (SF) 1-0 Article
Week 6: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) 1-0 Article
Week 7: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Dean Ippolito (NJ) 1-0 Article
Week 8: GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1-0 Article
Week 9: GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) vs GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) 1/2-1/2 Article
Week 10: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 1/2-1/2 Article
Quarterfinals: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Vinay Bhat (SF) 1-0 Article
Semifinals: FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1/2-1/2 Article
Championship: GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #1: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #2: GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 0-1 Article
Wildcard #3: GM Patrick Wolff (SF) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1/2-1/2 Article
Wildcard #4: IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #6: FM Bruci Lopez (MIA) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #7: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0 Article
Eliminated:
20th Place (18 Points): GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs IM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
20th Place: GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) 1-0. The best game of an utterly dull and boring week.
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19th Place: FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1/2-1/2. This game never made a big impression on me though I'll admit I haven't analyzed it thoroughly.
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18th Place: IM Lev Milman (CAR) vs GM Alex Shabalov (NY) 1-0. This is quite a decent effort from Milman and an upset at that. Still, I didn't find the game particularly inspiring compared to what's out there.
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17th Place: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs IM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) 1-0. Very nice play by Ehlvest but in some ways a bit of a routine defeat of a lower rated opponent.
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16th Place: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Vinay Bhat (SF) 1-0. A good game by Kuljasevic, but there wasn't much going on out of the norm here.
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15th Place: GM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0. I think Greg is crazy to rank this game so high. It certainly deserved GOTW, but it was Black who was doing the inspirational attacking maneuvers, not White! White benefited from a mistake in a complicated position.
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14th Place: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) 1-0. I was very surprised to see this game win GOTW, but it's certainly one of the most exciting games played this year. I just can't help but think Lenderman was hoping for a bit cleaner win against his lower rated opponent.
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13th Place: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0. A very nice upset by Kuljasevic, grinding out his opponent in strong technical style. Still, this was one of our last wildcard picks, mainly because it doesn't stand out.
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12th Place: GM Patrick Wolff (SF) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1/2-1/2. I'm going to be nice to Greg and give his Wildcard pick the benefit of the doubt. The saving grace of this game I think is that the players realized when the position was drawn and simply agreed to it, so that the judges can focus on the short but intense middlegame tactics.
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11th Place: FM Bruci Lopez (MIA) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA) 1-0. Greg says this game doesn't stand out, but I think that it does. I doubt the judges will take into consideration the time pressure of the final scramble, but I thought the game was remarkably exciting nonetheless.
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10th Place: GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1-0. The best game of the few we had to choose from in the Finals but overly one-sided. This game might crack the Top Ten because it was a finals game, but I don't think it deserves to be in the Top Five. Christiansen simply schools his opponent as to why Pawn-grabbing with the Queen in the opening is bad -- good for a beginner's opening book but bad for GOTY.
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9th Place: GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 0-1. A solid wilcard pick from Arun which I'll place towards the middle of the pack.
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8th Place: IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0. I may be crazy for ranking this game so high, but I have a sort of liking for it. Schneider really had to work hard for this victory, but he did so, taking a GM scalp with him.
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7th Place: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0. I felt this game was a strong performance by Lenderman, and the concluding tactics were sufficiently flashy to make it stand out. It was my first choice for the Wildcard picks.
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6th Place: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Dean Ippolito (NJ) 1-0. Splendid calculation by Lenderman. This game gets two thumbs up from me.
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5th Place: GM Alex Shabalov (NY) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 0-1. A crazy attacking win with the Black pieces by Sammour-Hasbun.
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4th Place: SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs IM David Pruess (SF) 1-0. One of Sammour-Hasbun's best attacking wins of the season.
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3rd Place: GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) vs GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) 1/2-1/2. A really spectacular draw, and I hope it does as well as I'm ranking here. Black over expands, holds on by a thread, and a lot of interesting moves are made as he manages to salvage a draw.
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2nd Place: GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1-0. My choice for best attacking win of the season. This game is far richer, deeper, and deserving of GOTY than Christiansen vs Zivanic.
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1st Place: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 1/2-1/2. Unless someone has refuted either side's play and hasn't told me, this is the best mix of quality and excitement available from all the games of the year. The result was accurate too, showing that BOTH sides were able to navigate the tactical complications.
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And just for humor value to see how badly this contest might have gone if we GOTW Judges had extended our tenure to GOTY rather than passing it on to a much more competent judging panel, the overall standings would then have been:
1st Place (56 Points): GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 1/2-1/2
2nd Place (51 Points): SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs IM David Pruess (SF) 1-0
3rd Place (51 Points): GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) vs GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) 1/2-1/2
4th Place (49 Points): GM Alex Shabalov (NY) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 0-1
5th Place (47 Points): GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 0-1
6th Place (46 Points): GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1-0
7th Place (44 Points): IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Dean Ippolito (NJ) 1-0
8th Place (43 Points): GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1-0
9th Place (35 Points): GM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0
10th Place (26 Points): IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0
11th Place (25 Points): IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0
12th Place (25 Points): FM Bruci Lopez (MIA) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA) 1-0
13th Place (24 Points): GM Patrick Wolff (SF) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1/2-1/2
14th Place (21 Points): IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Vinay Bhat (SF) 1-0
15th Place (18 Points): IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0
16th Place (18 Points): GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs IM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) 1-0
17th Place (17 Points): IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) 1-0
18th Place (14 Points): IM Lev Milman (CAR) vs GM Alex Shabalov (NY) 1-0
19th Place (11 Points): GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) 1-0
20th Place (9 Points): FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1/2-1/2
Stay tuned until tomorrow when the real GOTY selections finally begin to come out!
The Game of the Year (GOTY) contest has snuck up on us again, and so I will be giving you dear readers my (undoubtedly wrong) thoughts on the matter. I definitely have learned a couple of things from last year's contest such as how much the judges (at least last year's) tend to favor playoff games, but most importantly that some of the things I consider very important when judging Game of the Week (GOTW) like how important the game was to the match situation and the way it went down when played live are often not really considered relevant by the judges. While I intend to rank the games by what I feel based on all those factors, often I will make a note how I feel a game is likely to score higher or lower in the actual contest due to those general factors. Do take these rankings with a grain of salt though since it's been proven by scientific fact that Greg Shahade and Jonathan Hilton are far better judges than I and as such their predictions should be taken much more seriously.
20th Place: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) 1-0. I think that the choice for last place is very nebulous compared to last year, and I honestly didn't really have a clear choice in mind. Given all the ribbing we took for this game winning GOTW (which to a point I agree with since those who might cheat and scroll down and might see that I ranked another game from that week, Benjamin vs Erenburg, just a tad higher in my picks; despite that, I personally felt this game being a GOTW winner wasn't quite as ridiculous as most were making out), but it still seems the most logical choice for the very bottom spot as it was going to be a game I ranked low for sure anyway.
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19th Place: GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) 1-0. Like the above game, I was sure I was going to rank this game low, and it was also a game that most said had no business in winning GOTW when it did. So once again giving the public what they want is the easiest way to copout from making a potentially tough decision.
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18th Place: IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0. Nice effort by Schneider and a nice struggle, but very little to distinguish this game overall as it wasn't important to the match result and didn't have any truly flashy moves. As such I can't see putting it higher than here and nor do I expect it to finish much higher than this in the contest.
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17th Place: FM Bruci Lopez (MIA) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA) 1-0. Like the Schneider game, nice, hard fought, and a good upset, but again not too much to make it stand out and so I think I have to put this relatively low also. The GOTY judges will likely rank this a bit higher than me, especially if they favor quality over excitement greatly, but I still don't see it cracking the Top Ten.
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16th Place: FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1/2-1/2. Like Greg, I could definitely see this game getting last since there were clearly more mistakes in it than most of the other games. I think whether that happens mostly comes down to what the judges value highest. Whether a somewhat dry but fairly accurate game scores higher than a super exciting time pressure game with many mistakes is the real question. I personally favor something kind of in the middle for games which do not manage to be both exciting and accurate, but if forced to make a choice I would generally favor the latter type so I put this game slightly higher than many probably will.
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15th Place: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0. This game is another that I would not be surprised to see near the very bottom even though I think of it slightly higher. One of the attractive things about it was that it was the only one the two time MVP lost all season – something I doubt the GOTY judges will consider very important. Still it was a very strong performance by Kuljasevic so I think ranking it here is appropriate.
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14th Place: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs IM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) 1-0. It seems the peanut gallery mostly disagrees with me on whether this game should have been a Wildcard. I personally thought it was a reasonably exciting contest with several interesting moments, and although Black lost due to a blunder, on the whole there are fewer mistakes in this game than many others in the contest so I still feel it's a fine choice and would choose to rank it here.
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13th Place: IM Lev Milman (CAR) vs GM Alex Shabalov (NY) 1-0. Another strong effort by the victor and a reasonably attractive finish in the endgame, but again hard to find anything truly distinguishing about it so a mid to low ranking seems best. As for what the judges will do, I would be very surprised if it made the Top Ten, but pretty much any ranking outside of that won't be too shocking as many of the games around this ranking I feel are very close.
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12th Place: GM Patrick Wolff (SF) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1/2-1/2. Definitely the biggest anomaly in the contest having received no consideration at the time of it being played. I agree it likely should have received some attention with its interesting early game play and not having many mistakes by either side so a middle of the road ranking is what I would go with.
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11th Place: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0. Not sure what to really think about this game; it definitely was flashy (as both of these players' games tend to be), but both the early game play by White and middlegame play by Black seemed somewhat iffy. Weighing the flashiness versus this factor, going right in the very middle can only be correct.
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10th Place: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Vinay Bhat (SF) 1-0. Like Kuljasevic's other game, I think this game will likely get a lower ranking than I'm giving it here. Its biggest attraction was the importance of the game, and the dramatic fashion it was played under – again things the GOTY judges aren't likely to consider tremendously important. I personally feel, especially considering the time pressure involved, that this game was better than it likely will receive in the contest, but it wasn't exactly flashy either so it gets the other very middle spot in my picks.
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9th Place: GM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0. Like Tate's loss to Lenderman, this clearly wasn't the most accurate of games by either side, but very flashy. I personally liked this game a bit more than that one since it was a much longer fight, and as such had many more interesting moments, but still the mistakes have to keep it from the very top in my rankings though I wouldn't be shocked to see it in the Top Five.
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8th Place: GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1-0. This definitely seems to be a game where Greg and I severely differ. Yes it was very flashy and was from the Finals which is why I've ranked it this high, but the one-sidedness of this game was really extreme, with Black virtually committing suicide before move ten. I have a feeling, as Greg said, that this game will likely make the Top Five, and even though I don't quite agree with that, it certainly isn't a bad choice.
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7th Place: SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs IM David Pruess (SF) 1-0. Another game which I think is likely to make the Top Five (and perhaps even win), where I don't quite agree with it being quite that high. I too really liked the tactics by Jorge, especially the way his innocuous pushing of the Pawn to g6 wound up being the instrument behind it, but Black was a bit cooperative in allowing it and was likely better, if not winning, had he managed to avoid White's deadly tricks.
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6th Place: GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1-0. Like the Christiansen vs Zivanic game, the one-sidedness of this game managed to keep it out of my Top Five. I know Greg clearly thinks higher of the Christiansen game compared to this one, but I personally disagree. That game was obviously more flashy and more important matchwise, but I feel Erenburg definitely had to work harder in this game for this win as again Zivanic was likely lost before move ten. Perhaps that's just an assumption that was made since an amazing attacker like Christiansen made his game look so easy when it certainly might not really have been so, but that was the way I happened to judge those two games so I ranked them as such.
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5th Place: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Dean Ippolito (NJ) 1-0. I definitely agree this is the best of Lenderman's entries as this game had very few mistakes along with many interesting moments and tactics – a very solid Top Five contender in my book, and I have a feeling the judges will also rank it about here overall.
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4th Place: GM Alex Shabalov (NY) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 0-1. This is a very tough game to call. I personally thought it would be the unequivocal GOTW winner in Week One, and no one would debate it, but clearly there were some dissenters. I disagree with those saying that this game shouldn't have won, as considering how well Jorge defended and played, it obviously was a very tough position to play even if White did miff up the move order. As such, I think it was worthy then and worthy now so this is another solid Top Five game to me, and I have a feeling it will finish about here in the contest.
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3rd Place: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 1/2-1/2. Another easy Top Five game, one of the most exciting Petroffs perhaps ever played and certainly of high quality on top of that. The fair irrelevance of this game to the Playoff Picture may keep it out of the very top rankings of some judges, but I personally think it definitely belongs here and wouldn't be surprised if it even won.
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2nd Place: GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) vs GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) 1/2-1/2. Another very high quality and very exciting game. This is another game where I disagree with Greg's overall assessment, mostly his saying that it was "less exciting" than the Ehlvest vs Erenburg draw (though I don't think there is a big difference). I personally found this game was more exciting than that one since the "meat" of this contest was quite a bit longer than the other game. Given that and that it was certainly of no less importance, I have to favor it with a slightly higher ranking.
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1st Place: GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 0-1. Well a game which didn't even win GOTW is again my choice for GOTY winner. Unfortunately, when I voted this game first during its week and was assuming it would win in a landslide then, I was quite incorrect, and as such I can only assume that I will be here also. To me this game being first was an easy choice (in both GOTW and GOTY) since I feel it's the best mix of quality and excitement, and so I have to hope it will win. I however won't be broken up if it doesn't do so, as the contest is very close between many games especially for the top spot, but I would be quite disappointed if this game doesn't even manage to crack the Top Five as I think it's 100% deserving of that honor at least.
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Hello everyone, below are my guesses for the order of the top twenty games. For all fans who create such a list, we will have an informal contest to see whose picks most closely mirror our esteemed judges. Please note that I made these selections before any judges made their rankings and proved this by sending them to Arun Sharma weeks ago so if I happen to get all twenty games exactly correct, it's because I'm a huge genius, not because I cheated. As I'm not an official judge I didn't study all of these games for an hour before I made these rankings; just sort of went with my gut in many occasions. After having read some of the actual judges' comments, I'm very impressed with the work the judges put into their rankings.
Arun Sharma's rankings will be published tomorrow.
20th Place: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0. I don’t think this game will actually finish last so not sure exactly why I put it here. Just the game felt kind of 
random to me. Of course, I also gave it first place for GOTW when it happened, so I’m really confused obviously. To be honest, this season I'm very interested in seeing which game finishes last place as I think there are quite a few contenders this time around. In 2007 it was pretty obvious that one game was likely to finish last, and I felt that the nineteenth place finisher was also pretty clear (although I was right about it, that ended up being a very close vote). This time around I won't be shocked if there are a few surprises at the bottom of the standings.
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19th Place: FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1/2-1/2. In reality I believe this game should finish last. Sure it was exciting and dramatic, but the fact remains that both players made some serious mistakes in the time scramble at the end of the game. In fact probably half the moves that made up that portion of the game were clear errors. The only reason this won GOTW was because it was so exciting while it was going on, but IMO it won’t crack the top fifteen and will probably be one of the first games out. I do believe that judges tend to rank playoff games higher than usual so that's why I have it in here instead of last. No offense to these guys, it was very hard to find the correct moves with so little time on the clock, and I did rank this game first that week, but it just doesn’t deserve to finish very highly in this contest.
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18th Place: IM Lev Milman (CAR) vs GM Alex Shabalov (NY) 1-0. As nice as it is that Milman defeated the multiple time US Champion, it was an endgame pretty quickly, and I found the game relatively uninspiring from an aesthetic standpoint. I'm sort of biased against games like this though, so I wouldn't be shocked to see it with a higher ranking in the thirteenth to fifteenth range.
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17th Place: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0. In theory I prefer this game to Kuljasevic's other victory, however the fact that the other game took place in the playoffs and was extremely important to the team’s Championship run, while this was simply a regular season game, led to me choosing to give a higher ranking to Kuljasevic's win over Bhat. This was a nice strategical demonstration by Kuljasevic in his play against Becerra's hanging pawns and was also Becerra’s lone defeat of the 2008 season.
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16th Place: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Vinay Bhat (SF) 1-0. A clutch game from Kuljasevic, sending Dallas into the SemiFinals. Unfortunately if one is honest you have to admit it wasn’t particular exciting at all. Basically zero flashy tactics and no extremely instructive strategically moments. Kuljasevic played quite well, but not amazingly really and so here seems about right.
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15th Place: GM Patrick Wolff (SF) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1/2-1/2. A controversial game from Week One in that it got zero GOTW votes, and there was some criticism about this. I looked at it while feverishly searching for Wildcards and realized that it was actually a pretty cool game by both sides. I guess that early in the season we are more biased against the draws. Also, I felt at the time that the draw was premature (although I don't think now that it actually was.) Still I'm not sure this really deserved my Wildcard bid, but whatever, since a few people thought that it was robbed in Week One, let's see how it really does. Also note that there was some vocal opposition to the game that did win Week One (Shabalov vs Sammour). Well now we have two other Week One games in the contest in this one and Lopez vs Serper. Let's see how they stack up this time around; I think our result will be confirmed by the GOTY judges.
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14th Place: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs IM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) 1-0. Sure Ehlvest played great and beat the strong IM, but don’t we expect such play from GM's! It wasn’t particularly artistic or exciting so I don't see the game finishing too highly.
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13th Place: GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) 1-0. This is another game I expected to finish very low in the contest, but after further reflection, it was a long struggle with some good yet obvious tricks at the end. At certain points during the game it felt as though the players were shuffling the pieces around randomly, which certainly doesn't help it’s chances. I'll be very surprised if this game cracks the top ten, and not surprised at all if it finishes around sixteenth or seventeenth as well.
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12th Place: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) 1-0. I sort of thought this game was cool, lots of fun things happening, but the peanut gallery thinks that both sides made lots of mistakes. I'm not sure they were so clear, and I think they are being a bit too harsh. In any case, I'm going to put it in twelfth, but won’t be shocked if it finishes lower due to those things I heard.
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11th Place: IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0. How the hell did this game end up in eleventh place in my rankings? I have no idea. Fact of matter is Schneider played a very nice game. It wasn't exciting or anything, but whatever he played very well against a strong player. This is basically the part of the contest where all the games go where one side played well against a stronger player, winning, but in the process nothing too spectacular happened.
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10th Place: FM Bruci Lopez (MIA) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA) 1-0. I was very surprised to rank this game so highly. I mean I only picked it as my second wildcard game, after a game that I end up ranking much lower! How can I possibly be so illogical? I have no idea! Anyway Lopez played well to defeat a solid GM in Serper, there were a few cool moments, it wasn't really boring or anything, but not super-duper exciting or spectacular. I can't see this game breaking eighth place, but would be surprised if it finishes too low. Honestly if I had to guess, twelvth place would probably be more likely, but these are not just my predictions but also my own personal feelings about how I'd rank the games if I were a judge. In fact it's a mixture of both, my pure rankings may be slightly different, but I will be sure to note when those situations come up. For instance I suspect that the game I ranked in second place is more likely to win the contest than the game I ranked first.
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9th Place: GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1-0. A fun game that some judges will rank highly because they love massacres, and others will rank lower because it was too one-sided. I think that'll translate into about ninth place.
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8th Place: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Dean Ippolito (NJ) 1-0. This was definitely the best of Lenderman's trio of entries into the contest, but it's hard to say where it will finish. Lenderman played well, but I'm just not sure if it has the firepower to crack the top five. I do strongly suspect it will finish ahead of his other two games, as both sides played quite well from beginning to end.
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7th Place: GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) vs GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) 1/2-1/2. I think this game is going to have a real tough time cracking the top five, because I think that the other big draw, between Ehlvest and Erenburg, was simply more exciting. I suspect most judges will instinctively compare these two games, and rank that one higher, thus putting this game around the sixth to eleventh spot.
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6th Place: GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 0-1. Ok one may wonder why I didn’t rank this game highly when it came up in Game of the Week, but suddenly it now receives sixth place overall? The answer is because I am easily swayed by public opinion. If everyone feels that Erenburg played a great game, who am I to argue? However it's not exciting enough to crack my top five. I won't be surprised if this finishes anywhere from fourth to ninth.
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5th Place: GM Alex Shabalov (NY) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 0-1. A lot of people said this was mostly theory and as soon as Shabalov diverged that he was simply losing. I don't believe that most watching this game agreed or will agree while judging it. I suspect that this will definitely cause one or two judges to rank it lower than usual however, so wouldn't be surprised to see it finish anywhere from fourth to tenth.
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4th Place: GM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0. A fun game, with Tate sacrificing a piece for a bunch of pawns and walking his King towards the center. I think that if Tate ended up playing well to win this game, it'd have a great chance of first place in Game of the Year. Since Bhat won, I think somewhere around third to seventh place is more likely.
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3rd Place: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 1/2-1/2. A very exciting and well played draw. In terms of quality and excitement it's hard to do much better than this, although it's a shame that the match had no real effect on the standings. Such things tend to matter more in GOTW and less in GOTY though I believe.
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2nd Place: GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1-0. If you had to ask me to pick the game which will probably win, I'd say this one. Something about the fact that it was an aesthetically pleasing crush from the USCL Finals played by fan favorite, Larry Christiansen, makes me think it's got the best chances. I talked to a lot of random non-judges whom when asked what their favorite game of the year was, brought up this game first, although that could have something to do with the fact that the USCL Final was on their mind as it ended so recently.
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1st Place: SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs IM David Pruess (SF) 1-0. A great attacking effort by Sammour. I ranked this game first because he found some pretty difficult to find moves. The idea of simply capturing on e6 and playing Qf4 was very nice. I felt like the game was more hard fought than my 2nd place game, but as stated I think that Christiansen vs Zivanic is more likely to appeal universally.
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May as well give my percentages for what games I think might win first place:
Christiansen vs Zivanic (43%) – What can I say, I have a strong feeling about this game, but I'm also more of an extremist, giving huge percentages based on my gut feelings.
Sammour-Hasbun vs Pruess (25%)
Ehlvest vs Erenburg (8%)
Shabalov vs Sammour-Hasbun (7%)
Bhat vs Tate (6%)
Benjamin vs Erenburg (6%)
Erenburg vs Sammour-Hasbun (3%)
Kudrin vs Christiansen (1%)
Lenderman vs Ippolito (1%)
All other games (almost zero chance)
Here are my percentages for each game to make the Top Five:
Christiansen vs Zivanic (98%)
Sammour-Hasbun vs Pruess (85%)
Ehlvest vs Erenburg (55%)
Bhat vs Tate (50%)
Shabalov vs Sammour-Hasbun (50%)
Benjamin vs Erenburg (50%)
Lenderman vs Ippolito (35%)
Erenburg vs Sammour-Hasbun (35%)
Kudrin vs Christiansen (25%)
Lopez vs Serper (9%)
Schneider vs Perelshteyn (7%)
All other games (I know that it's completely unrealistic to believe this, but I just don't see how any of them can possibly finish in the Top Five. Maybe the only game with a prayer is Lenderman vs Zaikov if people think it was sufficiently exciting, so I guess I can give that 1-2%? (We will see if I'm wrong…)
In the fourth season of the USCL, there were more fans and bloggers who followed the league than ever before. However, none of them did as fine a job as Christopher Bird did with Boston-Blitz.com.
Not only did Boston-Blitz.com have entertaining live video commentary during the the playoffs, but there were also weekly match previews by Christopher Bird, weekly match recaps by Mark LaRocca, extensive photo galleries after every match, occasional interviews with team players, and controversial articles by Ilya Krasik. While there were lots of other great blogs out there, this one was hard to beat.
Other serious contenders would have to be the two expansion teams, Chicago and Arizona; both of their blogs were updated on a regular basis with lots of variety that included recaps, previews, game analysis, and photos. Also bioniclime.com led the league in statistical analysis of the players and matches. However in the end, Boston-Blitz.com did too fantastic of a job this season to be denied the prize.
Forgive us for not mentioning every blog; there were so many of them that we just can't do that, but please understand that the USCL greatly appreciates the time and effort that all of you put into making the 2008 season as entertaining as it was!
In 2007 we created the Rookie of the Year Award and the Most Improved Player Award. Starting in 2008, these prizes also come with a $100 bonus.
The 2008 Rookie of the Year Award went to a very deserving player, as IM Alex Lenderman finished with a 7.5 / 8 record en route to the MVP award. Alex also finished atop the Board Three All Star Team, and no other rookie really came close to achieving as strong a score as he did. FM Ron Simpson, just as for the All Star Team, would have been a very fine candidate for this award typically, but again Lenderman's score was just too strong to not give him the award.
The Most Improved Player Award was much tougher. The real meaning of this award was a bit nebulous as we found out when trying to decide on the winner this year, but for now and for the future, it should be considered to be the player who has shown the most improvement compared to the previous year while playing a reasonable number of games in both seasons. So for example if someone goes 0 – 2 in one season, and then finishes 6 – 2 the next season, they would not be considered strongly because they played so few games in the previous year.
After weighing the choices, the winner of this award may be a bit of a surprise, but there was no logical way to deny GM Pascal Charbonneau. It's hard to imagine a former MVP winning Most Improved Player, however he went from a -3 record with a 2401 performance rating in 2007 to a +2 record and a whopping 2721 performance rating in 2008, for a difference of five game points and 320 rating points.
The strongest other contender was WFM Bayaara Zorigt, who went from a +1 record to an amazing +6 record. The main issue in giving her this prize was that to give it to someone who qualified for the All Star Team in the previous season did not seem to be in the spirit of this award, at least what we had envisioned it to be. Also, like Charbonneau, she scored five more game points more than 2007, but her performance only improved by 231 points, which was almost 100 fewer points than the winner. Zorigt did have some great postseason play to lead Dallas to the title, but Charbonneau also had some clutch victories, with wins over Erenburg and Benjamin in the final two weeks of the regular season, both of which were huge in New York's miracle comeback to make the playoffs.
Other serious contenders were GM Alex Stripunsky and NM Craig Jones as both had subpar seasons in 2007, but improved greatly this year, each doing four game points better than before. Some other players who may well have been strong contenders, especially if they'd played more games in 2007, were SM Marc Esserman, NM Ilya Krasik, and FM Thomas Bartell, the latter two also doing better by four game points than 2007, while Esserman of course had a whopping +6 season after being even in 2007 (albeit in only one game). However, Charbonneau's improvement just happened to be more striking than any of the eligible players, in terms of game points and especially in performance rating.
In the end it came down to Charbonneau's superior stats, and the fact that it felt more natural to give this award to someone who had a poor year the previous season, then turned it around and had a good year, as opposed to someone who did quite well in the previous season, and then did amazingly the next year.
Wildcard #7: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0 Just as last year, we Game of the Week judges seemed to be headed towards a large argument when choosing the final Wildcard for the GOTY contest; hence, to avoid all the turmoil that was clearly going to be inevitable when coming to a consensus on the final game, we decided to use a fairly democratic system for choosing it. One of us would pick nine candidate games to start off, the second would narrow those nine games to three, the last would narrow those three to one, and presto we'd have it! A fairly agreeable system to all of us, and after a random selection, I wound up being in the first spot, Greg the second, and Jonathan the third. My nine choices were (in order of when they were played from earliest to latest)
IM Bryan Smith (PHI) vs IM Eli Vovsha (QNS) 0-1FM Slava Mikhailuk (SEA) vs FM Peter Bereolos (TEN) 0-1GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) 1-0FM Todd Andrews (TEN) vs IM Jan Van de Mortel (CHC) 0-1IM Angelo Young (CHC) vs FM Peter Bereolos (CHC) 1-0IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0IM Sam Shankland (SF) vs FM John Bick (TEN) 1-0GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) 1-0IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1-0 and then Greg narrowed it down to:
GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) 1-0IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) 1-0 and Jonathan picked:
IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0 and so with that the Game of the Year entrants are set! The twenty games are:
Week 1: GM Alex Shabalov (NY) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 0-1 Article
Week 2: IM Vinay Bhat (SF) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0 Article
Week 3: GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) 1-0 Article
Week 4: IM Lev Milman (CAR) vs GM Alex Shabalov (NY) 1-0 Article
Week 5: SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs IM David Pruess (SF) 1-0 Article
Week 6: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) 1-0 Article
Week 7: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Dean Ippolito (NJ) 1-0 Article
Week 8: GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1-0 Article
Week 9: GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) vs GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) 1/2-1/2 Article
Week 10: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 1/2-1/2 Article
Quarterfinals: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Vinay Bhat (SF) 1-0 Article
Semifinals: FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 1/2-1/2 Article
Championship: GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #1: IM Alex Lenderman (QNS) vs IM Emory Tate (CHC) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #2: GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 0-1 Article
Wildcard #3: GM Patrick Wolff (SF) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1/2-1/2 Article
Wildcard #4: IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #5: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs IM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #6: FM Bruci Lopez (MIA) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #7: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0 Article
And so now everything leading up to the GOTY contest is complete; what's left is to allow our judges the adequate time to make their selections and then reveal those selections to you readers. So keep a close eye on the USCL website as the results will start being released in early January, and this year's Game of the Year winner and the $500 prize that goes with it will be revealed in early February!
Wildcard #6: FM Bruci Lopez (MIA) vs GM Gregory Serper (SEA) 1-0Greg Shahade: It didn't take too long to pick this as my second WildCard game. I was extremely close to choosing it the first time around, and once I saw it was still available it became the natural choice. Lopez simply played a very nice game against a very strong opponent. It was a complex and interesting game, and Lopez found some nice shots such as 26. c6. Also helping this game was the lack of any extremely serious mistakes by either side.
By the way just a quick note that I feel bad for Serper. He has won many games in the USCL, yet it seems that almost every one of his losses ends up in the Game of the Year contest. I think he now has about five losses that have made the contest compared to zero wins.
Wildcard #5: GM Jaan Ehlvest (TEN) vs IM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) 1-0Arun Sharma: I believe I made a mistake when I didn't rank this game in Week 4, and perhaps it should have even won the prize that week. I recall when looking at it originally, it seemed quite messy, and I made the incorrect assessment that it wasn't well played. It seems I was definitely wrong as there were actually very few mistakes, and it clearly had its exciting moments. As such, I think it's a very worthy Wildcard.
Wildcard #4: IM Dmitry Schneider (QNS) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0Jonathan Hilton: When I heard it was time for me to pick my second WildCard Game for Game of the Year, my immediate thought was: oh no, what if I pick a game as bad as Bonin vs Shmelov from last year? I'd had this particular game in mind — it was a little messy, but it was exciting and hard fought – I scrutinized it a bit using the computer just to make sure. Since there seemed to be no obvious outright blunders, I figured give it a go. I felt Schneider's enterprising play, especially putting the Queen on c1, led to a rich middlegame. Perelshteyn seemed to put up tough resistance once he sacrificed the exchange, however one would expect no less, since he authored a book on the Accelerated Dragon with Alburt & Dzindzi not all that long ago.
Wildcard #3: GM Patrick Wolff (SF) vs IM Marko Zivanic (DAL) 1/2-1/2Greg Shahade: I'm sure this will be a slightly controversial pick. Basically I ran through all the games, and none of them excited me too much (although now I feel quite happy with my second Wildcard pick, to be revealed in a few days). I originally went through the games by looking at the second and third place finishers from each week, and also checking the games where I generally gave big scores. I then decided that to be thorough I should try to reflect on some games that perhaps didn't do so well, but deserved a closer look at the time.
This game was exciting and quite well played by both sides. This should generally give any game a good chance of making the GOTY contest. There were two problems however:
1. It had the impression of being a premature draw, as the draw was agreed relatively early with lots of pieces on the board. However, when you look at it closer, it seems to be a very sane decision by both players, as it's extremely difficult for either side to make any progress.
2. It's quite short, and the meat of the game is not so many moves. This is probably the biggest black mark against this game.
Note that this game got zero GOTW votes from any of the judges. One of the players of this game then left a comment on our blog, criticizing the game that won the GOTW, Shabalov vs Sammour-Hasbun 0-1 (while not promoting his game at all), and another strong player chimed in with his surprise that this game received zero votes.
I have no idea how it will do in the final contest, but I'm honestly very curious whether this pick will turn out to be a respectable one or if it'll be seen as a mistake. I'm very surprised I picked it because I honestly forgot all about it until about an hour into my search for WildCard games, and even after the Week One criticism I didn't really feel that it was warranted at the time. Anyway only time will tell!
Wildcard #2: GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 0-1Arun Sharma: Given all the commentary we received this year regarding bad GOTW picks, I'm sure there would be many readers who would be anxious to contribute to the "Top 100 Dumb Things the GOTW Judges did this season". While I can't deny such a list might be very interesting to read, if I personally was going to make a contribution to it, at the top would have to be this game not winning GOTW when it had the chance. Hopefully the GOTY judges give it its well deserved redemption in the GOTY contest as it was clearly very high quality (especially by league standards) and also had some interesting and exciting play in it, making it a very easy Wildcard Choice.
