The first game to crack the top ten gets a couple of very high marks but also a couple of very low ones demonstrating the judges’ indecision regarding White’s creative yet perhaps speculative play.
This is the eleventh part in a series of articles which will count down to revealing what game was voted as the 2013 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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10th Place: FM Eric Rodriguez (MIA) vs IM Irina Krush (NY) 1-0
After a daring sacrifice, White struck with 26. b4!, cutting off Black’s Queen, with this crucial idea being the eventual key to his victory
FM Alisa Melekhina (2nd Place, 19 Points): Cmon, you expect me to not even be a bit biased when a convincing c3 Sicilian is in the mix? Commendable opening choice aside, Rodriguez held off an extremely formidable player while unleashing a furious Kingside piece attack with several crowd-pleasing sacrifices. Even more than 22. Qh4 I preferred the astounding 26. b4 – cutting off Black’s Queen + Rook bond and magnifying the coordination of White’s pieces.
I prefer to exchange the pesky d5 Knight by going Nc3 early on and encouraging a formation that strengthens White’s Pawn center. However, with the e5 pawn serving as an anchor, Eric chose to play around the Knight and accelerated his menacing attack with Qe4. What followed was a model execution of mini c3-Sicilian plans which piled up into a devastating attack: lining up the Queen and Bishop against the light squares surrounding Black’s king; establishing dark-square weaknesses by provoking …g6, and directing the g5 Knight to wreak havoc on h7, f7, and e6. One may even say this was an “emblematic” c3 Sicilian game.
If Black isn’t able to successfully neutralize White’s play, it’s a lot for a player of any caliber to handle. Whether or not the piece sacrifice was 100% sound, I’ve always been of the persuasion that practical play is as much part of chess as is anything else. As Tal would say, “years of analysis and minutes of play are not quite the same thing”. Placing your opponent in the uncomfortable situation where she must calculate a threat on every move while her time is trickling away is a powerful competitive strategy.
Unless we want to reduce chess to a battle of who can remember more engine-wrought theory, we should recognize the rare win arising from a true battle of the wits. The c3 Sicilian is a favorite of mine precisely because it provides the breeding ground for creativity where the battle is fought OTB. Yet another example of why the c3 Sicilian is anything but tame.
GM Alex Yermolinsky (3rd Place, 18 Points): Correct, incorrect who cares. Rodriguez plays an inspired attack highlighted by a thematic 26. b4! to shut the Black Queen out of play. Everything hangs on one tempo as it should.
GM Alejandro Ramirez (12th Place, 9 Points): Rodriguez, typical of his style, carelessly sacrifices a piece for unclear compensation. It ends up paying off, but most of the points this game gets are from attitude and bravery than for good play.
IM Jake Kleiman (14th Place, 7 Points): This game was quite sloppy by Black. This could have been a very strong candidate for Game of the Year if Eric had found the computer move 27. Rxd5!. Unfortunately, missing that and relying on Irina’s poor play isn’t sufficient.
FM Ron Young (18th Place, 3 Points): The prospect of this sort of attack (as in some Ken Regan games) made me want to take up the 2. c3 Sicilian back in the late 70s, but then the cat knocked a White pawn under the oven, and that was that for a couple years, while better defensive plans were being discovered. Still, 27… Qb4 (rather than the similar but f6-watching …Qc3) seems like too late a win-to-loss moment to rank this among the top.
FM Ingvar Johannesson (19th Place, 2 Points): Give White credit, he really went for it in this game with an attacking scheme in the Alapin (c3) Sicilian. Now … having said that I really don’t believe the sacrifice to be sound, and I also feel like Black could have defended better. Also White missed a good shot with 27. Rxd5. So for “incorrectness”, bad defence, and a killer blow miss this game suffers a bit in my rankings.
Total Score of Rodriguez vs Krush: (10th Place, 58 Points)
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Stay tuned for nine more such articles as the field shrinks by one game almost every day to see which of the following games will be the 2013 Game of the Year!
Week 2: GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs GM Robert Hungaski (MAN) 1-0 Article
Week 5: IM Dmitry Schneider (MAN) vs GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) 0-1 Article
Week 6: IM Marc Esserman (BOS) vs GM Tamaz Gelashvili (NY) 0-1 Article
Week 8: GM Conrad Holt (DAL) vs IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) 1-0 Article
Week 9: GM Giorgi Margvelashvili (DAL) vs GM Ben Finegold (STL) 1/2-1/2 Article
Semifinals: GM Sam Shankland (NE) vs GM Tamaz Gelashvili (NY) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #1: GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs FM Steven Winer (NE) 1-0 Article
Wildcard #3: IM Justin Sarkar (CON) vs IM Levon Altounian (ARZ) 0-1 Article
Wildcard #5: GM Alex Stripunsky (NJ) vs GM Melikset Khachiyan (LA) 1-0 Article
Eliminated:
10th Place (58 Points): FM Eric Rodriguez (MIA) vs IM Irina Krush (NY) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
11th Place (58 Points): GM Zviad Izoria (MAN) vs GM Tamaz Gelashvili (NY) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
12th Place (58 Points): IM Vitaly Neimer (STL) vs FM Eric Rodriguez (MIA) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
13th Place (56 Points): GM Emil Anka (SEA) vs FM Tom Bartell (PHI) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
14th Place (51 Points): IM Andranik Matikozyan (LA) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
15th Place (44 Points): GM Conrad Holt (DAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
16th Place (43 Points): GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs GM Tamaz Gelashvili (NY) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
17th Place (43 Points): GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) vs GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
18th Place (41 Points): John Michael Burke (NJ) vs NM Ryan Goldenberg (MAN) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
19th Place (40 Points): GM Niclas Huschenbeth (BAL) vs IM Steven Zierk (BOS) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
20th Place (40 Points): GM Tamaz Gelashvili (NY) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0 Article Elimination Article