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2004's Greatest Chess Games What were the greatest games of 2004? You've decided, my fellow chessgames.com kibitzers! Voting took place from December 24, 2004 to January 1st, 2005 in the Kibitzer's Cafe. A kibitzer could vote for up to five separate games, assigning a number to each. I awarded five points to the first choice, four points to the second, and so on. Over 30 different games recieved votes, but only the top 10 made it into this collection. Of course everyone has their own favorite and there are bound to be disagreements, but remember that these are all great games. 10 games, 2004 2005's Greatest Chess Games After the success of last year's Game Collection: 2004's Greatest Chess Games, I decided to hold another vote for the best of 2005. Voting took place from December 24th, 2005 to January 7th, 2006 in the Kibitzer's Cafe. The purpose of the vote was to determine what you kibitzers think are the greatest chess games played in the year 2005. This year, a kibitzer could vote for up to 10 separate games, assigning a number to each. I awarded ten points for the first choice, nine points for the second, and so on. Over 50 games received votes, but only the top ten made it into this collection. 10 games, 2005 2006's Greatest Chess Games The 3rd annual chessgames.com vote on the greatest games of the year commenced on Sunday, December 31st, 2006 and continued through January 7th of the new year. The rules remained unchanged from 2005: a kibitzer could select up to ten games from 2006 to vote for. Any nonvariant game of chess in the chessgames.com database, including those played under rapid, blitz, blindfold and simul conditions could be chosen. Kibitzers assigned a number to each of their choices, indicating which game they thought was best, second-best, and so on. I awarded ten points for the first choice, nine for the second, eight for the third, and so on down to the tenth game, which earned one point. This year was a big first in voting history as two games tied for first place and shared Game of the Year honors. Both of them, and the rest of the top ten in the points tallies, are included in this game collection to stand for all time as chessgames.com's choices for the greatest games of 2006. 10 games, 2006 2007's Greatest Chess Games The 4th annual chessgames.com vote for the greatest games of 2007 commenced on Tuesday, January 1, 2008 and continued until Thursday, January 10. Kibitzers could vote for up to ten games from the year 2007, assigning a number to each of their choices, indicating which game they thought was best, second-best, and so on. Any nonvariant game of chess in the chessgames.com database, including those played under rapid, blitz, blindfold and simul conditions, could be voted for. I awarded ten points for the first choice, nine for the second, eight for the third, and so on down to the tenth game, which earned one point. The ten games with the most points were included in this collection to stand forever as the chessgames.com community's choices for the absolute best chess moments of 2007. 10 games, 2007 2008's Greatest Chess Games The 5th annual chessgames.com vote for the greatest games of 2008 commenced on January 6, 2009 and continued until January 16. Kibitzers could vote for up to ten games from the year 2008, assigning a number to each of their choices, indicating which game they thought was best, second-best, and so on. Any nonvariant game of chess in the chessgames.com database, including those played under rapid, blitz, blindfold and simul conditions, could be voted for. I awarded ten points for the first choice, nine for the second, eight for the third, and so on down to the tenth game, which earned one point. The games with the most votes were inducted into this collection as chessgames.com's favorite memories of the chess year 2008. You may notice that this collection has eleven games instead of the traditional number of ten. This is because four games ended up tied in the voting results for 8th-11th place, and rather than break the tie I made the prior decision to induct them all. 11 games, 2008 2009's Greatest Chess Games The 6th annual chessgames.com vote for the greatest games of 2009 took place on the iron maiden chessforum in January 2010. The vote operated under the usual rules: kibitzers could select up to ten games from the chessgames.com database, assigning a number to each choice to indicate which game they thought was best, second-best, and so on. Ten points were awarded to every kibitzer's first choice, nine for the second, eight for the third, and so on down to the tenth game, which earned one point. After all the votes were tallied, the ten games with the most points were included in this collection to stand forever as chessgames.com's choices for the very best chess contests of 2009. Thanks to all who participated in the vote this year, and special thanks go out to <tpstar> for tallying all the votes and supplying many of this year's captions. 10 games, 2009 All Hail Emanuel 87 games, 1889-1936 Bizarre games Chess at its wackiest. WARNING: By clicking here, you acknowledge that I cannot be held responsible for any eye or brain damage caused by viewing these games. 37 games, 1862-2007 Games by Famous People Just like it says, a collection of notable games by notable people, from movie stars to dictators. 23 games, 1804-2002 Iron Maiden's favorites album My favorite games from the history of chess. 50 games, 1851-2007 Notable Nakamura Games In chronological order. 44 games, 1999-2010 Power to the Pawns! The pawn is by far the weakest man on the board...yet a single one often makes the difference between victory and defeat. Here are some examples of pawn play at its finest. 47 games, 1749-2006 WCC Index [FIDE 2001 World Championship] Work in progress. The FIDE regulations in place at the time called for two-game matches at normal time control. The winner would move on to the next round while the loser was eliminated. If the original two games ended in a 1-1 tie, the players would contest two rapid-play games to determine a winner, followed by two games of blitz if necessary. If the match was still undecided, a single "sudden death" game would take place between the participants, with White having six minutes and Black five. The winner of this seventh game would be the overall match winner; in the event of a draw the player with the black pieces would be allowed to advance. For the sixth round of the event, the amount of games played at normal time control in each minimatch were increased from two to four, and then from four to eight for the seventh and final round. The rules for quick-play tie-breaks remained unchanged throughout the event. 29 games, 2001-2002 WCC Index [FIDE 2004 World Championship] Work in progress. 17 games, 2004 WCC Index [FIDE 2005 World Championship] 56 games, 2005 What Not To Do in the First Three Moves We men are wretched things. 8 games, 1893-1990 Z is for Zvjaginsev 17 games, 1995-2008 Zugzwang! Zugzwang means move-compulsion, in the sense that there is no direct threat to the player whose turn it is, but every move he makes hurts his position. This collection features some of chess history's most extraordinary examples of zugzwang. If you find any that I'm missing, drop me a line! 34 games, 1896-2006