Game of the Year -- 19th Place

This is the second part in a series of articles which will count down to revealing what game was voted as the 2010 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 Contest.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


19th Place: FM Charles Galofre (MIA) vs FM Marcel Milat (SEA) 1-0






















The sight of a King on c3 by move eleven is a rare site in the USCL indeed, but FM Galofre eventually got the best of the complications, scoring a wild victory



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.



WIM Alisa Melekhina (2nd Place, 19 points): Highly reminiscent of the Morphy era of the King's Gambits with Kings traveling halfway across the board, and almost reckless piece sacrifices, this game was a pleasant reprieve from the high frequency of French and 1. d4 games in this year's batch. After Milat's inaccurate 5… Nxe4 instead of 5... Qe7, Galofre persisted in hunting down the Black King, undeterred by his substantial loss of material that could have gone terribly wrong if not for 21... Qf6? that Galofre promptly capitalized on. A very entertaining struggle by both sides that should serve as a caveat to those of us who have forgotten obsolete 1. e4 e5 theory.



GM Robert Hess (16th Place, 5 points): I wish I could have ranked this game higher, I really do. However, the game was just too silly. This is some rare line that has been played before, and Galofre misplayed it. 12. Bg5 wasn't so great, and is in fact equal, while 12. Bc4 is immediately winning, so says the obscure theory in this weird line. 21... Qf6 was a bad blunder. Instead, 21... c5 seems to give Milat the huge advantage and probable win. Oh well, one mistake in such a crazy position will do you in, as Milat found out. Still, too weird of a game that stems from several previous games (though both players seemed to not know of them). I wanted to rank this one higher but couldn't. Exciting but highly inaccurate.



GM Jan Gustafsson (20th Place, 1 point): I have never trusted or checked this 4… Bb4 line and isn't Black supposed to go 5... Qe7? Not sure, the game continuation looks mad risky for Black to me. 12. Bg5 seems wrong, 12. Bc4 looks more to the point. Afterward both sides play only moves up to 17... Qd6+, where 18. Ke4! fxg5 19. Qh8+ would have lead to a perpetual and a logical conclusion. After 18. Ke2? fxg5, Black should be better, but then blunders terribly with 21... Qf6??, where both d5 and and c5 instead should have favored him. The punishment is obvious enough. No beauty prizes here.



FM Ingvar Johannesson (20th Place, 1 point): I am sure I will be ranking this game much lower than most people. On the surface this is a super wild and entertaining game and very pleasing for the average player to watch. However below the surface ... most of the game has already been played before, and I have no doubt the well prepared FM Galofre had most of this position on his "kitchen table" before this game. 18... fxg5 was a novelty and only a few moves later Black makes a huge blunder with 21... Qf6 throwing the game away instantly instead of for instance 21... d5 where it's only Black who can think about a win. Nice looking and complicated game but didn't do it for me because it was mostly known theory and then a huge blunder.



FM Ron Young (20th Place, 1 point): If originality didn't count, every game would be either the Belgrade Gambit or the Moeller Attack. But it does, and it isn't or it isn't. And Black did make rather a result-changing mistake right out of theory. Unlike the weekly judges, we annual people don't know the rankings when we write these comments. So on the chance my ranking of this game is wildly different from the consenus, let me say that I understand how others may have found it a wild, rollicking ride without the worry of being puked on.



Total Score of Galofre vs Milat: (19th Place, 27 Points)


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Stay tuned for seventeen more such articles as the field shrinks by one game almost every day to see which of the following games will be the 2010 Game of the Year!


Week 1: GM Yury Shulman (STL) vs GM Melikset Khachiyan (LA) 1-0 Article

Week 2: GM Yury Shulman (STL) vs IM Florin Felecan (CHC) 0-1 Article

Week 3: IM Daniel Rensch (ARZ) vs WFM Tatev Abrahamyan (LA) 1-0 Article

Week 4: GM Josh Friedel (SF) vs GM Varuzhan Akobian (SEA) 1-0 Article

Week 6: GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs GM Jesse Kraai (SF) 1-0 Article

Week 7: IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) vs GM Giorgi Kacheishvili (NY) 1-0 Article

Week 8: IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) vs GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) 0-1 Article

Week 9: GM Varuzhan Akobian (SEA) vs GM Josh Friedel (SF) 1-0 Article

Week 10: SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs GM Giorgi Kacheishvili (NY) 1-0 Article

Quarterfinals: NM Ilya Krasik (BOS) vs NM Adithya Balasubramanian (BAL) 1-0 Article

Semifinals: Nicholas Rosenthal (MIA) vs NM Nick Thompson (ARZ) 1-0 Article

Championship: IM Sam Shankland (NE) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0 Article

Wildcard #1: NM Eric Rosen (CHC) vs Alex Guo (SEA) 0-1 Article

Wildcard #2: GM Varuzhan Akobian (SEA) vs GM Yury Shulman (STL) 1-0 Article

Wildcard #3: GM Giorgi Kacheishvili (NY) vs IM Sam Shankland (NE) 0-1 Article

Wildcard #4: GM Alex Stripunsky (MAN) vs GM Sergey Erenburg (BAL) 0-1 Article

Wildcard #6: GM Dmitry Gurevich (CHC) vs IM Rogelio Barcenilla (ARZ) 1-0 Article

Wildcard #7: IM Robert Hungaski (NE) vs IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) 1-0 Article



Eliminated:


19th Place (27 Points): FM Charles Galofre (MIA) vs FM Marcel Milat (SEA) 1-0 Article Elimination Article

20th Place (23 Points): SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) vs IM Sasha Kaplan (BAL) 1-0 Article Elimination Article