- Best Games of 2010
|
The 7th annual chessgames.com vote for the year's Best Games was held on the tpstar chessforum in January 2011. The vote operated under the standard rules; kibitzers could select up to ten games from the database 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 the votes were tallied, this Game Collection will stand as the group's choices for the Best Games of 2010. The Anand-Topalov WC Match dominated the 2010 contest, with five games receiving votes and two making the Top Ten. Best Game of the Year honors went to speed demon Alexander Grischuk for his memorable King walk against Gashimov, and Grischuk will soon strut his stuff in the Candidates events. Nakamura and Karjakin scored well with impressive attacks, and the remaining five games (all White wins) were creatively inspired. Magnus Carlsen had an eventful year, ditching Kasparov early and Kirsan late while finding time to convincingly defeat everybody Carlsen vs The World, 2010 , yet shockingly not one of his games made the list. 16 voters nominated 46 games. Votes weighed heavier this year since many people only chose one or two games.
|
|
10 games, 2010 - Best Games of 2011
|
The 8th annual chessgames.com vote for the year's Best Games was held on the tpstar chessforum in January 2012. 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 the votes were tallied, this Game Collection will stand as the group's choices for the Best Games of 2011. Game of the Year honors went to Levon Aronian for his bold endgame sacrifice leading to a rampaging Queen during the Tal Memorial. Boris Gelfand put it all together to win the Candidates Matches and face Anand for the WC title, with two Gelfand wins in the Top Ten. Carlsen had a phenomenal year and scored two brilliant attacking games in the Top Five, while Svidler's World Cup triumph got him on the list. Spectacular attacks by Jun and Kotronias scored well, plus a long King walk by Xue and an exquisite ending by Kramnik. 13 voters nominated 58 games. Votes were spread out over more games this year as most voters prepared a full list of ten.
|
|
10 games, 2011 - Best Games of 2012
|
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.
|
|
10 games, 2012 - Best Games of 2013
|
The 10th annual chessgames.com vote for the year's Best Games was held on the tpstar chessforum in January 2014. 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 2013. Game of the Year honors went to Viswanathan Anand for his stunning opening novelty 15 ... Bc5!! over Aronian at Tata Steel. World Champion Magnus Carlsen scored five wins on the list, including two from his match win against Anand. Laznicka flushed out Morozevich's King in an entertaining battle which came in Third. Nakamura showed nifty endgame finesse over Karjakin in Fourth, Wang Hao miniaturized Giri in Fifth, and Ding Liren's brilliant attack against Aronian finished Seventh. This year's edition featured 16 games total due to a unique 7-way tie for Tenth. 11 voters nominated 51 games.
|
|
16 games, 2013 - Best Games of 2014
|
The 11th annual chessgames.com vote for the year's Best Games was held on the tpstar chessforum in January 2015. 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 2014. Game of the Year honors went to Veselin Topalov for a scintillating win over Vallejo Pons during his gold medal run at the Olympiad. World Champion Magnus Carlsen has six games in the Top Ten, with three from his WC match against Anand. Fabiano Caruana enjoyed a phenomenal 2014, capped off by dominating the Sinquefield Cup; three of his games made the list. Mamedyarov sacrificed the exchange to upend Aronian, Anand took one win from Carlsen over two WC matches, Vachier-Lagrave cashed in with a brutal attack, and Aronian caught Svidler on f7. 13 voters nominated 67 games.
|
|
11 games, 2014 - Best Games of 2015
|
The 12th annual chessgames.com vote for the year's Best Games was held on the tpstar chessforum in January 2016. 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 2015. Game of the Year honors went to Chinese prodigy Wei Yi for a classic King hunt against Bruzon Batista. Denis Khismatullin took Second Place with the brilliant 44. Kg1!! sacrificing a Rook to win an instructive major piece endgame over Eljanov. David Navara was Third with a long King walk against Wojtaszek. Hikaru Nakamura placed Fourth with a brutal Kingside attack to defeat So. Maxim Matlakov Queened a Pawn just in time to beat Bok for Fifth Place. World Champion Magnus Carlsen placed four wins on the list: a classic BB vs NN endgame grind over Nakamura, a QRR vs QRR victory versus Aronian, a wide open brawl with Chao, and upending Kramnik in a Q vs RB contest. So beat Liren in an entertaining Queen versus three pieces game to round out the Top Ten. 15 voters nominated 72 games.
|
|
10 games, 2015 - Best Games of 2016
|
The Best Games of 2016 contest was held on the tpstar chessforum in March 2017. Voting 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. Games required at least two nominations to make the final list. After all of the votes were tabulated, this Game Collection will stand as our choices for the Best Games of 2016. Game of the Year honors went to Sergey Karjakin for his impressive win over World Champion Magnus Carlsen in their hard fought title match. Karjakin also took Second Place with his key last-round victory over Fabiano Caruana in the Candidates tournament where he became the Challenger. Caruana finished Third with a tactical slugfest over Hikaru Nakamura, sacrificing his Queen for two pieces and tricky complications. Both Carlsen wins in the WC rapid playoff made the list: Game 15 with a monster Black Knight on e3, and Game 16 where 50. Qh6+!! sealed the deal in style. Wesley So placed three games in the Top Ten - a classic Ruy Knight theme against Gata Kamsky, a blitz beauty over former World Champion Garry Kasparov, and a crucial Olympiad win over the red hot Ian Nepomniachtchi - during a spectacular breakout year where he skyrocketed to the top. Levon Aronian tied for Sixth with a pretty Queen sacrifice/Pawn promotion tactic at the Tal Memorial. Rounding out the Top Ten, Jan-Krzysztof Duda beat Grzegorz Gajewski in Bundesliga with a creative Queen sacrifice line, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won as Black over Anish Giri in Norway featuring the same sharp Sicilian variation as that Caruana-Nakamura game. The delayed voting schedule produced five bonus entries, including a Smith-Morra dandy during the Olympiad, Caruana over Adams at the Isle of Man, and two wins by former World Champion Viswanathan Anand in the Candidates event. 8 voters nominated 44 games, proving that one person can change chess history. =) https://youtu.be/oMVe_HcyP9Y
|
|
15 games, 2016 - Best Games of 2017
|
The Best Games of 2017 contest was held on the bgitw chessforum in January 2018. Voting 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. Games required at least two nominations to make the final list. After all of the votes were tabulated, this Game Collection will stand as our choices for the Best Games of 2017. Game of the Year honors went to former World Champion Viswanathan Anand for his sparkling win over Fabiano Caruana ending with a creative cross-pin and Pawn promotion motif. Ding Liren finished Second with a sharp Queen sacrifice against Jinshi Bai, then every Black piece attacked the White King. Levon Aronian was Third defeating World Champion Magnus Carlsen with an exchange sacrifice followed by attacking a weak square complex. Vladimir Kramnik placed two games in the Top Ten: a brilliant Rook sacrifice for three connected passed Pawns on the Queenside against Pentala Harikrishna at #4, and two exchange sacrifices to beat Matthias Bluebaum at #10. Three games tied for Fifth: Yifan Hou sacrificing her Queen for two pieces against Borya Ider, Bu Xiangzhi upsetting Carlsen at the World Cup, and AlphaZero over Stockfish grinding out a won endgame (the first computer contest to ever make the Best Games list). Wesley So finished at #8 (or #6, depending how you view it) with a nice sacrificial win against Jeffery Xiong during the U.S. Championship. Chinese prodigy Wei Yi was #9 with a quick Sicilian Poisoned Pawn crush over Yinglun Xu, and Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi came in at #10 overcoming Li Chao with an inspired Kingside attack after a Bishop sacrifice. 14 voters nominated 88 games.
|
|
11 games, 2017 - Best Games of 2018
|
The Best Games of 2018 contest was held on the bgitw chessforum in January 2019. Voting 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. Games required at least two nominations to make the final list. After all of the votes were tabulated, this Game Collection will stand as our choices for the Best Games of 2018. Game of the Year honors went to Tiger Hillarp Persson for his brilliant Olympiad win over Tomas Laurusas featuring a memorable King walk and a sparkling Queen sacrifice. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov placed three wins in the Top Ten: his Olympiad victory over Levon Aronian at #2, his Biel win over World Champion Magnus Carlsen at #6, and his Tata win over Challenger Fabiano Caruana at #7. Two games tied for #3: Indian prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa hit the big time by beating Teja Ravi at the Isle of Man tournament, and Vladimir Kramnik defeated Aronian in short order at the Candidates Event. Caruana outdueled Kramnik in a tricky endgame during the Candidates Event at #5. Ding Liren finished at #8 with his Olympiad win against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Three games tied for #9: former World Champion Viswanathan Anand over Caruana at Tata, AlphaZero over Stockfish in their match (the second computer game to ever make the Best Games list), and Wesley So over Carlsen at Altibox Norway. 17 voters nominated 78 games, with ten full lists of ten.
|
|
11 games, 2018 - Best Games of 2019
|
The Best Games of 2019 contest was held on the bgitw chessforum in January 2020. Voting 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. Games required at least two nominations to make the final list. After all of the votes were tabulated, this Game Collection will stand as our choices for the Best Games of 2019. Game of the Year honors went to Murali Karthikeyan for his brilliant win over Ali Firouzja featuring a Queen sacrifice for two pieces and a dark square blockade. Richard Rapport earned Second Place with a dazzling retreating move 37 … Rc8!! to defeat Duda at Tata. Zhao Jun took Third Place with a beautiful final mate pattern. Ding Liren placed two games in the Top Ten: his Sinquefield Cup win over Fabiano Caruana at #4, and his win over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in London at #6. Jeffery Xiong was Fifth Place with a complicated Scotch Game battle over Sam Shankland at the US Championship. Two unbalanced Queen for pieces games also tied for Sixth: MVL over Rapport in Saint Louis, and Wei Ye over dos Santos Fier at Aeroflot. Rounding out the Top Ten were nice wins by Ian Nepomniachtchi over Caruana in Croatia, and World Champion Magnus Carlsen over Anish Giri at the Gashimov Memorial. Twelve voters nominated 71 games.
|
|
10 games, 2019 - tpstar 2N
1-100 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. 0-0
100-199 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Nc3 Nxe4! 5. Nxe4 d5 200-299
400-499 9. Nh3
700-799 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 d5 5. ed Na5 6. Bb5+ c6 7. dc bc 8. Be2 h6 9. Nf3 e4 10. Ne5 Bc5 11. c3 Bd6
|
|
140 games, 1861-2015 - tpstar AD
1. e4 Nf6 2. e5 Nd5 3. c4 Nb6 4. d4 d6 5. ed
1-99 5 ... cd
100-199 5 ... ed
|
|
24 games, 1935-2013 - tpstar CC
1-99 3 ... Qa5 4. d4
100-199 3 ... Qd8 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3
200-299 3 ... Qd6 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 a6
300-350 3 ... Qd6 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6
351-400 3 ... Qd6 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bg4
|
|
57 games, 1858-2015 - tpstar CK
|
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. ed cd 4. c4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. cd Nxd5 8. Bd3 Be7 9. 0-0 0-0 10. Re1 1-100 10 ... Bf6
101-200 10 ... Nf6
201-250 10 ... Ncb4
251-300 10 ... Nxc3
301-350 10 ... etc
400 6 ... Bb4
|
|
133 games, 1895-2016 - tpstar FD
|
1-99 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. ed ed 5. Bb5+ Bd7 6. Qe2+ Opening Explorer 100-199 5. Ngf3 Opening Explorer A) 5 ... Nc6
B) 5 ... Nf6
C) 5 ... a6
D) 5 ... c4
E) 5 ... Bd6
200-299 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. ed Qxd5 5. Ngf3 cd 6. Bc4 Qd6 7. 0-0 Nf6 8. Nb3 Nc6 9. Nbxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 a6 A) 11. Bb3 Qc7 12. Qf3 Bd6 13. h3 0-0 14. Bg5 Nd7 15. c3 B) etc
300-499 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Bd3 c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Ne2 cd 8. cd f6 9. ef Nxf6/Qxf6 500-549 9. Nf4
550-599 9 ... Bb4+
600-699 3 ... Nc6
700-799 3 ... de 4. Nxe4
1) 4 ... Nd7 5. Nf3 Ngf6 6. Bd3 Nxe4 7. Bxe4 Nf6 8. Bg5 Be7 9. Bxf6 Bxf6 10. Qd3 1100 3 ... Nc6
1200 3 ... f5
|
|
235 games, 1864-2016 - tpstar MD
0-99 5 ... c5 6. e5
100-149 5 ... c5 6. dc Qa5 7. Bd3 Qc5 8. Qe2 0-0 9. Be3 Qa5 150-199 5 ... c5 6. dc Qa5 7. Qd4
200-299 5 ... 0-0 6. Bd3 c5 7. d5
300-399 5 ... 0-0 6. Bd3 etc.
|
|
53 games, 1963-2015 - tpstar PD
1-100
100-199 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 ed 4. e5 Ne4 5. Qxd4 d5 6. ed Nxd6 7. Nc3 Nc6 8. Qf4
|
|
53 games, 1900-2013 - tpstar RL
|
1-50 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4 4. Nxd4 exd4 5. 0-0 c6 6. Ba4 51-99 etc.
100-199 3 ... f5
|
|
207 games, 1858-2017 - tpstar SC
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6
|
|
3 games, 1991-2010 - tpstar SE
75 games, 1960-2015
|
Kibitzing
