The Chess Mind

The United States Chess League's 2007 season ended a few weeks ago, and as you'd expect in an event featuring GMs like Christiansen, Benjamin, Becerra, Serper, Friedel and Nakamura, it produced many fine games. Throughout the season judges selected a game of the week; those games, together with a number of wildcard selections, were thrown into the mix for game of the year consideration.

For the second year running, USCL commish Greg Shahade invited me to serve as a judge for the GOTY competition, and I've submitted my rankings. I'd love to tell you how I ranked the games, but then Greg would probably make sure I woke up next to a horse's head, so I'll have to refrain. My selections, along with those of my fellow judges (Alex Shabalov, Jenn Shahade, Robby Adamson and Ron Young), will be revealed a week at a time, starting the first week of the year, but you can whet your appetite now by having a look at this long article by Arun Sharma on the USCL blog.

It's an excellent article by Sharma, who starts by attempting to profile the judges, and then goes through all the games (to which links are provided, along with the comments they received from the game of the week judging). If you have any interest in the USCL, it's definitely worth your time!