It would be more of a surprise to see a year with Sammour-Hasbun not having a game crack the Top Five in the GOTY Contest, and this year would prove to be no exception as his strong attacking effort finished in fourth position.
This is the seventeenth part in a series of articles which will count down to revealing what game was voted as the 2012 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
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4th Place: GM Alex Stripunsky (NJ) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 0-1
With the just played 20… Rg8!, SM Sammour-Hasbun began a brutal attack that GM Stripunsky was unable to defend himself from
IM David Pruess (1st Place, 20 Points): Deep positional ideas and insane Sammour-Hasbun calculation. I ranked a lot of the games based on how they made me feel, rather than on a strict formula involving quality of play, and degree of difficulty in correctly finding certain moves. Did I learn something? Did I enjoy it? Was I moved? But for my top ranking spot, I thought it was also proper to select a game of really high quality, and I think Sammour-Hasbun’s play in this game was fantastic. This is a well-known opening and Pawn structure, and a line in which White usually does well. A strong GM is playing White, but Black wins decisively. You can definitely learn a lot from analyzing this game.
FM Ron Young (3rd Place, 18 Points): Similar to Shmelov vs Holt in the Pawn structure vs. Bishop pair sense. The problem with taking the Pawn structure side of the argument is that, should one lose the game, it is too easy for someone to say “nice Pawn structure, though!” Sammour-Hasbun, fortunately, is too much of a gentleman for such
a taunt, so let us hope the rest of the world follows his example.
GM Alex Yermolinsky (5th Place, 16 Points): In the popular line of the Anti-Meran Semi-Slav Black used a similar idea of allowing White to double his pawns as Holt did against Shmelov. Once again, the weakness was masked by White’s inability to transfer his minor pieces to the Kingside. 16. h3? may have been a more serious error than one could anticipate. Sammour-Hasbun immediately hit on the right plan of using the open g-file to his advantage. The end came surprisingly quickly as White was unable to defend his King. This game has certain theoretical importance as it’s hard to believe that White will pursue the Bg5 idea anymore.
GM Robert Hungaski (9th Place, 12 Points): White continues to struggle in this variation. Every now and then some super GM will come out with a big novelty that yields a small advantage. But it seems that in most cases Black is getting a comfortable game. In my opinion White should not push e4 as that type of game will give Black the most problems. When White pushes e4, Black’s position is very rich and his control over the dark squares provide sufficient containment against White’s usual attempts at expansion in the center. I especially like the idea of embracing the doubled f-pawns. After 20… Rg8, Sammour-Hasbun was in his element and was unforgiving.
GM Alejandro Ramirez (11th Place, 10 Points): Black’s attack destroyed an unprepared Stripunsky. The quality is too bad to be high on the list.
FM Alisa Melekhina (17th Place, 4 Points): It looked like there were two different games being played concurrently on the two sides of the board from move 19 onwards. On the Queenside, White was attempting to employ typical Slav ideas. On the other side, Black was steamrolling down the King.
After goading White into doubling the f-pawns, Black shrewdly used the g-file to his advantage. He initiated a makeshift attack, with seemed to have left Stripunsky with no time to prepare a defense. This was a “what-just-happened??” game where the GM could have definitely put up more resistance.
I remember ranking Sammour-Hasbun’s game first in last year’s contest, and was disappointed not to see more of his games in this year’s batch that would serve as a stronger testament to his usual fearless and creative style.
Total Score of Stripunsky vs Sammour-Hasbun: (4th Place, 80 Points)
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Stay tuned for three more such articles as the field shrinks by one game almost every day to see which of the following games will be the 2012 Game of the Year!
Week 5: GM Vladimir Romanenko (MAN) vs GM Alex Stripunsky (NJ) 0-1 Article
Quarterfinals: SM Matt Herman (NY) vs IM Eli Vovsha (MAN) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #2: GM Alex Stripunsky (NJ) vs GM Tamaz Gelashvili (NY) 0-1 Article
Eliminated:
4th Place (80 Points): GM Alex Stripunsky (NJ) vs SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
5th Place (79 Points): GM Tamaz Gelashvili (NY) vs GM Sam Shankland (NE) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
6th Place (77 Points): SM Robert Perez (MIA) vs GM Julio Sadorra (DAL) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
7th Place (77 Points): GM Mikheil Kekelidze (CON) vs FM Kassa Korley (CAR) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
8th Place (75 Points): IM Priyadharshan Kannappan (STL) vs FM Kassa Korley (CAR) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
9th Place (72 Points): GM Tamaz Gelashvili (NY) vs SM William Fisher (PHI) 1/2-1/2 Article Elimination Article
10th Place (71 Points): FM Kazim Gulamali (BOS) vs GM Larry Kaufman (BAL) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
11th Place (66 Points): FM Eric Rodriguez (MIA) vs IM Justin Sarkar (CON) 1/2-1/2 Article Elimination Article
12th Place (59 Points): IM Mackenzie Molner (ARZ) vs IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
13th Place (59 Points): GM Vladimir Romanenko (MAN) vs GM Tamaz Gelashvili (NY) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
14th Place (58 Points): IM Georgi Orlov (SEA) vs GM Conrad Holt (DAL) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
15th Place (57 Points): NM Jared Defibaugh (BAL) vs NM Justus Williams (NY) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
16th Place (48 Points): GM Ben Finegold (STL) vs GM Niclas Huschenbeth (BAL) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
17th Place (37 Points): NM Joshua Sinanan (SEA) vs IM Shahin Mohandesi (ARZ) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
18th Place (33 Points): SM Denys Shmelov (BOS) vs GM Conrad Holt (DAL) 1/2-1/2 Article Elimination Article
19th Place (30 Points): FM Ralph Zimmer (BAL) vs NM Joshua Colas (CON) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
20th Place (17 Points): IM Georgi Orlov (SEA) vs SM William Fisher (PHI) 1/2-1/2 Article Elimination Article