And the final wildcard choice gets axed from the Game of the Year Contest, finishing right outside the Top Ten, leaving only the Game of the Week winners to battle it out for the top spots.
This is the tenth part in a series of articles which will count down to revealing what game was voted as the 2014 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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11th Place: GM Anton Kovalyov (RIO) vs GM Gata Kamsky (NY) 0-1
In a dominating effort against a very strong GM, the current US Champion nicely continued with 27… Nh4+!, 28… Nf5!, with his attack quickly proving decisive
FM Ron Young (3rd Place, 18 Points): I’d call this a “battle of ideas”, but I’m guessing White didn’t realize in time the Pawn exchange he was committing to. Perhaps he could have resisted better later on, but the improvements I found with a computer all looked very computer-like. Nice attack, and everybody got to play.
GM Alejandro Ramirez (10th Place, 11 Points): White was certainly very optimistic to give up his entire Kingside and the center for two passed Pawns on the Queenside. Surprisingly, he got mated.
FM Ingvar Johannesson (11th Place, 10 Points): I liked Kamsky’s play in this game. From the relatively quiet Karpov variation he found a way to give up most of this Queenside for a big Kingside initiative. White’s 14. cxb5 was rather weak, but Kamsky played energetically to exploit it.
FM Alisa Melekhina (15th Place, 6 Points): Kamsky equalized too easily in the opening then Kovalyov got a bit too creative in exchanging his central pawns for their flank counterparts. It’s a big mistake to give Kamsky a strong center coupled with complete control over piece placement. A principled player like Kamsky knows that flank attacks are strongest when one is in possession of the center: he went for a full-throttle Kingside assault which Kovalyov was ill-equipped to meet.
Kovalyov excels in slow positional grinds. He was never given a chance to demonstrate his style. It’s not easy to beat a strong player in such a one-sided manner.
IM Priyadharshan Kannappan (18th Place, 3 Points): When I studied the basics, I learned about developing your pieces first. So when I saw 10. d4, I intuitively felt that may not be right, but engines think otherwise. I would still stick to the basic principles of chess rather than what the engine likes at that point though. I think this type of chess was played mainly due to the match situation, as it looked to me White artificially created complications to create winning chances when he could have played slowly. This game was actually quite self-destructive by White.
Total Score of Kovalyov vs Kamsky: (11th Place, 48 Points)
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Stay tuned for ten more such articles as the field shrinks by one game almost every day to see which of the following games will be the 2014 Game of the Year!
Week 1: GM Anton Kovalyov (RIO) vs GM Daniel Naroditsky (SF) 1-0 Article
Week 4: GM Wesley So (STL) vs GM Alex Lenderman (CON) 1/2-1/2 Article
Week 5: GM Alex Lenderman (CON) vs GM Gata Kamsky (NY) 1-0 Article
Week 6: GM Niclas Huschenbeth (BAL) vs GM Wesley So (STL) 1/2-1/2 Article
Week 7: GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) vs GM Holden Hernandez (RIO) 1-0 Article
Week 8: GM Daniel Naroditsky (SF) vs GM Conrad Holt (DAL) 1/2-1/2 Article
Week 9: GM Julio Becerra (MIA) vs GM Julio Sadorra (DAL) 1-0 Article
Week 10: IM David Vigorito (NE) vs FM Andrew Shvartsman (MAN) 1/2-1/2 Article
Semifinals: GM Wesley So (STL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0 Article
Championship: GM Wesley So (STL) vs GM Conrad Holt (DAL) 1-0 Article
Eliminated:
11th Place (48 Points): GM Anton Kovalyov (RIO) vs GM Gata Kamsky (NY) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
12th Place (48 Points): GM Niclas Huschenbeth (BAL) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 1/2-1/2 Article Elimination Article
13th Place (42 Points): GM Daniel Naroditsky (SF) vs GM Conrad Holt (DAL) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
14th Place (41 Points): GM Varuzhan Akobian (STL) vs GM Renier Gonzalez (MIA) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
15th Place (38 Points): GM Mackenzie Molner (ARZ) vs GM Eugene Perelshteyn (BOS) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
16th Place (36 Points): IM Jeffery Xiong (DAL) vs GM Varuzhan Akobian (STL) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
17th Place (36 Points): GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs IM Jeffery Xiong (DAL) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
18th Place (32 Points): GM Pascal Charbonneau (NY) vs GM Conrad Holt (DAL) 0-1 Article Elimination Article
19th Place (20 Points): IM Georgi Orlov (SEA) vs GM Alex Stripunsky (NJ) 1-0 Article Elimination Article
20th Place (19 Points): IM Kassa Korley (CAR) vs GM Julio Becerra (MIA) 0-1 Article Elimination Article