The Chess Mind

Marcel Martinez's fantastic win over Dmitry Zilberstein. This was my choice for first place, but some of the judges - at least one of them - really punished it for its largely being home prep. We (I'm one of the judges in the contest) were given freedom to evaluate the games as we saw fit, so while I can't really complain about Adamson's decision, I can certainly lament it! You can read the judges' report here, replay the game here, and see my coverage of it on ChessVideos.tv by the end of the week.

Thanks to a goof-up on my part, the video for the 3rd place game in the US Chess League's 2007 Game of the Year contest is in the wrong location (at least for now). Here's the link.

[Reminder: This was probably the best game of the year, not only in my opinion but in that of two IMs I've spoken with, and in USCL blogger Arun Sharma's, too. So it's definitely worth your time to check it out!]