The 9th annual chessgames.com vote for the year's Best Games was held on the tpstar chessforum in January 2013. The contest operated under the standard rules; kibitzers could select up to ten database games in order. Ten points were awarded for a #1 choice, nine points for #2, eight points for #3, and so on down to #10 which earned one point. After all of the votes were tabulated, this Game Collection will stand as the group's choices for the Best Games of 2012.

Game of the Year honors went to Andrei Volokitin for his stunning shot 21. Bd8!! followed by several quiet moves to create a winning attack. Hikaru Nakamura finished Second with his memorable Olympiad victory over Kramnik. Levon Aronian scored two wins in the Top Ten, first his famous Ne1! game over Giri and second a tricky endgame against McShane. Fabiano Caruana also had two games on the list, with a unique double exchange sacrifice against Karjakin plus a crushing Pawn avalanche to top Giri. Magnus Carlsen made chess history, earning the highest rating ever while soundly defeating World Champion Anand at Bilbao. Emanuel Berg played an inspired Queen sacrifice, Vladimir Kramnik displayed his KID mastery, and lastly a blitz win by Alexander Morozevich over Carlsen rounded out the Top Ten.

14 voters nominated 70 games.