Arun Sharma's GOTY Picks

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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