The Chess Mind

The United States Chess League is doing a countdown of the 20 best games of the 2007 season, and this week we're down to #13: Molner-Arnold. The game was a characteristically sharp Najdorf Sicilian with 6.Bg5, and saw Molner devise not one but three major sacrifices for long-term compensation. It was a very interesting game, in my opinion, and you can watch my video presentation here.

We're down to #14 in the countdown to the U.S. Chess League's 2007 Game of the Year, and this week's entrant was perhaps unique among the year's games. Some judges thought its distinguishing feature was the Tangborn's poor play, while others were more impressed by Kuljasevic's attacking buildup and the nice combinational finish. I think there's something to be said for both points of view, as well as the meta-point that it's easy to play comparatively weakly when faced with an unfamiliar sort of position. That both mitigates the criticism against the loser and increases the value of the winner's play - after all, he did manage to successfully navigate the unfamiliar terrain.

However you come down on the matter, I think you'll find it was an interesting game, and you can see my video presentation (free and on-demand) here.

[Fans of my ChessBase show are especially invited to join in, as for obvious reasons (obvious if you read this blog, anyway!) there won't be a CB show tonight, as I'm playing in an IM norm tournament all week.]

We're down to #15 in the countdown to the U.S. Chess League's 2007 Game of the Year, and this week's entrant is the long battle between the San Francisco Mechanic's Vinay Bhat and the Dallas Destiny's John Bartholomew. It's a game worth checking out, both for the important opening ideas (Bhat's 18th move looks significant for Center Counter theory) and the interesting endgame as well.

You can read the judges' report here, and - best of all! - you can see my video presentation (free and on-demand) here. [Note: while there were technical problems with some recent videos, the problems have been solved!]

Once a week, the U.S. Chess League reveals a new game in its countdown to the winner of the 2007 season's game of the year. This week, they announced the 16th place finisher: Julio Becerra's win over Ron Burnett from the regular season match between Miami and Tennessee.

You can read the judges' report on this game here, and then get the full benefit by watching my video presentation. That's here, and you can watch whenever you want, for free.