The last wildcard game to fall, but this managed a very nice finish despite a very clear disparity in opinions from the judges as evidenced by the receiving of both a first and last place vote.
This is the seventeenth 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
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
4th Place: GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs FM Steven Winer (NE) 1-0
White finished off a dominating performance with the attractive Queen sacrifice, 35. Qxh5+!
IM Jake Kleiman (1st Place, 20 Points): GAME OF THE YEAR!!! First, Pascal plays an unambitious opening. Then, the middlegame leads to a closed position that further puts my guard down. Finally, opportunity strikes with 30. g5. After that Pascal played every computer move including massive sacrifices. And of course, Game of the Year gets a pretty Queen sac in there too. Wonderfully deserving and excellent job by one of the nicest guys out there.
FM Ron Young (5th Place, 16 Points): Some annotators lament when a player plays “just” to win the sacrificed material back, but in fact, though to trade one advantage for another is an art, to trade an advantage for the same advantage is a far more difficult art. So it’s kinda too bad White had a forced mate after the Queen sac, because otherwise he could have gone for the overwhelming material advantage.
GM Alejandro Ramirez (6th Place, 15 Points): The pretty factor gives this one a decent score.
FM Alisa Melekhina (7th Place, 14 Points): I can’t recall the last time I saw a game where not a single piece or pawn had been exchanged for thirty moves! Pascal spent the majority of the game maneuvering his pieces to their optimal squares. Black was evidently thrown off ever since the opening. Rather than initiating play on the Queenside, he tried to execute a haphazard closed Ruy Lopez plan by maneuvering the Knight to g7. No go. All of his pieces were misplaced, and Pascal was in complete control the entire time.
Once he decided the time was ripe to exchange, the game exploded with the earth-shattering 34. Ngxh5 and 35. Qxh5 sacrifices. Two Bishops never looked so powerful. The game was an excellent example of how to adapt to your opponent’s play and dictate the course of the game.
FM Ingvar Johannesson (7th Place, 14 Points): After an offbeat Sicilian we got a position that more resembled a Spanish or even a bad Czech Benoni. Either way, White slowly built up on the Kingside, but Black sort of attempted to “check down” the position and didn’t do much. This resulted in White being able to finish his build-up at his leisure and end with a flashy looking but easy to calculate Queen sacrifice.
GM Alex Yermolinsky (20th Place, 1 Point): This game would look good in a book of positional chess written fifty years ago. But in this day and age nobody is supposed to lose like this.
Total Score of Charbonneau vs Winer: (4th Place, 80 Points)
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
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 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
Eliminated:
4th Place (80 Points): GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs FM Steven Winer (NE) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
5th Place (80 Points): IM Justin Sarkar (CON) vs IM Levon Altounian (ARZ) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
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