There is always one game which unfortunately ends up falling one spot short of the $, and unluckily for GM Holt his game happened to be the one this time as the judges appreciated his nice opening play but didn’t find enough other substance within the game to allow it to crack the Top Five.
This is the fifteenth 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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6th Place: GM Conrad Holt (DAL) vs IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) 1-0
With the seeming very interesting novelty, 20. g4!, White scored a brutal victory in a position which had only seen three-fold repetitions prior
FM Ingvar Johannesson (1st Place, 20 Points): Holt comes up with the novelty 20. g4!? in a position where a draw by repetition had previously been recorded in for instance the high level encounter Kasimdzhanov-Bacrot. Without any seemingly bad moves by Black Holt slowly but surely turns the screws, and Black is left helpless with weak dark squares and an offside Queen. An enjoyable demolition.
IM Jake Kleiman (6th Place, 15 Points): Awesome game! Conrad castles into a compromised King cover and then plays a series of seemingly unconnected moves to devastate Jonathan.
FM Ron Young (9th Place, 12 Points): The portion of this game between the opening theory and the mopping up (or the “technical phase”, if I were being paid for this) struck me at first as being too short. Really, though, there were roughly ten moves in the “game” portion of the game, and that’s practically a marathon by 21st century standards. Also, it’s cool when you sacrifice something and then your very next move is simply to defend a piece, while your opponent is taking another pawn.
GM Alejandro Ramirez (10th Place, 11 Points): The fact that most of this game was preparation doesn’t take away the fact that it was a well-played game and a clean demolition using interesting ideas in the Nimzo-Indian
FM Alisa Melekhina (10th Place, 11 Points): We’re living in the computer generation of chess where many games are decided by novelties. It is immensely disheartening to fall prey to computer prep in a previously established position. In this game, Holt unveiled the staggering 20. g4 in a position that had previously culminated in a repetition. I’m not going to hold this against Holt, but I can only judge the game from after move twenty when the players left theory. This only really leaves ten moves since in the last eight Black was already hopelessly lost.
In those ten moves from 20-30, Holt displayed great skill in exploiting the dark squares. There was something so logical about the Qd2-Bg5-f6 maneuver – all the pieces were beautifully connected. Keeping the entire board in mind, Holt used the Knight to indirectly attack by springing it to b5-c7. There was little Black could do.
I was a bit torn about where to rank the game because it was theory-ridden, yet simultaneously powerfully executed. I don’t want to discourage the USCL as a forum for players to implement significant theoretical improvements – it’s wonderful to see a fan-powered league contribute to the mainstream status and theoretical development in chess. The game was well-played and representative of the current state of chess competitive strategy. A top ten finisher for me.
GM Alex Yermolinsky (13th Place, 8 Points): Holt wins out the opening in his pet line. A pretty and tight game, but Schroer’s cooperation had a lot to do with it.
Total Score of Holt vs Schroer: (6th Place, 77 Points)
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Stay tuned for five 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 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
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
Eliminated:
6th Place (77 Points): GM Conrad Holt (DAL) vs IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
7th Place (72 Points): GM Alex Stripunsky (NJ) vs GM Melikset Khachiyan (LA) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
8th Place (70 Points): GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs GM Robert Hungaski (MAN) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
9th Place (69 Points): GM Giorgi Margvelashvili (DAL) vs GM Ben Finegold (STL) 1/2-1/2 Article Elimination Article
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