2007 Game of the Year… What’s Black’s Best?

July 22nd, 2008 Mark La Rocca

I know the game of the Year has been discussed thoroughly; but, since I need to test the blog, I thought I would bring up the position after 11.Rh3… and ask… what is Black’s best?

Sammour-Hasbun,J (2576) – Kuljasevic,D (2491)








Black to move Position after move 11 Castling possibilities: Q 0 half-moves after last pawn advance or capture

Position after 11.Rh3…

Anand and Shirov, believe it or not, played two games from this position in 2000 (I don’t know the time limit). Shirov, as Black, tried 11…Na5 12.b4 cxb4 13.axb4… and, in the second encounter, he tried 11…a5 12.b3 Qc7 13.Neg1 a4 14.b4… and White (Anand) won both games.

The move played by IM Kuljasevic seems more logical if you like Shirov’s idea of …Na5.

Jorge, I know you’re out there… give us some help… what did you expect? What line did you fear? Don’t force me to research this myself… please.

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Duo Still Alive in USCL Game of the Year Voting

March 10th, 2008 Chris Bird

Boston Blitz players GM Larry Christiansen and Jorge Sammour-Hasbun are still very much alive in the USCL Game of the Year voting, which takes the top 20 games from the season and every week elimates one more game from contention.  The voting is now down to just 10 games remaining, with the only two Blitz games that qualified still in the hunt for a prize.

The USCL Game of the Year contest takes all of the Games of the Week from the 13 weeks in the season, along with 7 wildcard games, to give a total of 20 games.  These games have been ranked from 1-20 by the 5 judges, FM Robby Adamson, NM Dennis Monokroussos, GM Alex Shabalov, WGM Jennifer Shahade and FM Ron Young.  Each week, the game remaining with the lowest score from the judging gets eliminated.
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