There were eight judges to vote for the best game of August: Alexandra Kosteniuk, Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, Michal Krasenkow, Evgeny Gleizerov, Sergey Ivanov, Sergey Soloviov, Andrei Deviatkin and Vladimir Barsky. On the whole, our experts marked that the level of the games didn’t impress them indeed. Perhaps, the columnist forgot how to find masterpieces. However, let’s wait a little with hasty conclusions. Both the intricate struggle and Zvjaginsev’s fantasy and skill helped Vadim’s victory over Zhang Pengxiang become the winner of the contest. This game collected 3 first places (Krasenkow, Ivanov and Gleizerov), 1 second and 1 third. All in all, it came out the best game of the month in an undisputable manner. Sergey Ivanov: “Zvjaginsev played in his best style without taking a breath! Everything was excellent: the original and skilful opening, positional exchange sacrifice, gradual raising of the threats and “flapping” the opponent’s position by unexpected maneuvers (the mere move 30.Rg1!! seems to be brilliant)”. Sergey Soloviov: “Zvjaginsev’s glorious sacrifice of exchange is not evident. That’s why it looks like to be even more impressive”. Evgeny Gleizerov: «Vadim Zvjaginsev scored a victory in his own style. On the one hand, the opening was quite unpretentious. On the other hand, having played 2.Na3, the Russian chessplayer made Zhang Pengxiang invent moves himself. Both positional pawn and exchange sacrifices impress indeed. One can say that they were obvious. In fact, such sayings are absolutely groundless. To tell the truth, it was very difficult for White to appreciate the consequences of the sacrifice and to bring himself to play in this way”. The glorious game Gelfand – Aronian finished second overall. Vladimir Barsky awarded it with the first place. It also received 3 second and 1 third place. Evgeny Gleizerov: “Gelfand – Aronian. White’s 10th move is not only a strong novelty but also the beginning of well thought-out plan. Boris carried it into effect with the classical clearness and accuracy”. The fabulous encounter Nataf – Vachier-Lagrave took the third place. It managed to collect 1 first place (Kovalevskaya), 1 second and 2 third places. It is the only game that was mentioned in all lists. To be honest, taking into account it’s favorable appreciations, it doesn’t yield to the winner at all. Sergey Ivanov: “I am sure that both these games (Zvjaginsev – Zhang Pengxiang and Nataf – Vachier-Lagrave) can be considered to be candidates for the title of the best game of the year”. When one analyses them, he experiences fantastic pleasure!>

<There were eight judges to vote for the best game of August: Alexandra Kosteniuk, Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, Michal Krasenkow, Evgeny Gleizerov, Sergey Ivanov, Sergey Soloviov, Andrei Deviatkin and Vladimir Barsky. On the whole, our experts marked that the level of the games didn’t impress them indeed.> Those experts talk like that about players like Aronian, Gelfand or Zvjaginsev? Except for Krasenkov none of them had ever been near 2700. Krasenkov reached it once but then did everything to lose rating points.

How good does one have to be to appreciate the work of others, regardless of the field?

Do you think he would be able to play like Aronian or Gelfand?

This Soloviov wrote a book about Shirov and is quite well known. Dvoretsky would never play as Aronian or Gelfand, too. Or should they vote for their own games?

1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 d5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. d4 Nf6 6. Bxf4 Qe4+ 7. Qe2 Qxe2+ 8. Bxe2 Nd5 9. Bd2 Be7 10. O-O c6 11. c4 Nf6 12. Nc3 O-O 13. Bd3 Rd8 14. Rae1 Be6 15. Ne2 Nbd7 16. Nf4 Nf8 17. Bc3 Bd6 18. Nxe6 Nxe6 19. Bf5 Nc7 20. Ba5 Nfe8 21. Ng5 g6 22. Bh3 b6 23. Bc3 f6 24. Ne6 Nxe6 25. Bxe6+ Kg7 26. g4 h6 27. Kg2 a5 28. d5 c5 29. h4 g5 30. hxg5 hxg5 31. Bf5 Nc7 32. Bc2 Rf8 33. Rf5 Rae8
34. Rxg5+ Kf7 35. Bg6+ Kg8 36. Bxf6 1-0

http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twi...

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. Qe2 Nc6 4. c3 Nf6 5. g3 Be7 6. Bg2 d5 7. e5 Nd7 8. d3 b5 9. h4 Rb8 10. O-O O-O 11. Bf4 c4 12. d4 b4 13. Qc2 bxc3 14. bxc3 Qa5 15. Ng5 g6 16. Nd2 Nb6 17. a4 Bd7 18. Ra2 Rb7 19. Rfa1 Rfb8 20. h5 Na8 21. hxg6 hxg6 22. Ndf3 Kg7 23. Bh3 Rh8 24. Kg2 Qd8 25. Rh1 a5 26. Raa1 Nb4 27. cxb4 axb4 28. a5 b3 29. Qd2 Nc7 30. a6 Ra7 31. Nxf7 Kxf7 32. Bg5 b2 33. Bxe7 bxa1=Q 34. Bxd8 Qxh1+ 35. Kxh1 Rxh3+ 36. Kg2 Rh5 37. g4 1-0

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 f5 4. d3 fxe4 5. dxe4 Nf6 6. O-O d6 7. Nc3 Be7 8. Bc4 Na5 9. Qd3 c6 10. a4 Nxc4 11. Qxc4 Qd7 12. h3 Qe6 13. Qxe6 Bxe6 14. Ng5 Bc4 15. Rd1 h6 16. b3 Bg8 17. Nf3 Bh7 18. Re1 O-O-O 19. Ba3 Rhe8 20. Rad1 b6 21. Re2 a6 22. Ne1 d5 23. Bxe7 Rxe7 24. f3 Kc7 25. Nd3 dxe4 26. Nxe4 Nxe4 27. fxe4 Rd4 28. Rde1 a5 29. Re3 b5 30. c3 Rd8 31. Ra1 1/2-1/2

Going undefeated for over half a year with such openings is no mean feat! (I like his openings, BTW.)

http://chess.vrsac.com/Aktuelno/Ess...

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/chess/s...

A panel of Russian chess experts voted this superlative effort by the Z-man as the <2nd(!)> best game played in all of 2006, second only to the famous Topalov-Aronian Corus 2006 double exchange sac on the same square game. And I think the Z-man's game came up only 1(!) point short in the voting.

Zvj blundered on move two! Everyone knows 2. Na3 is correct. :P

Lately he has been playing 2. d3 instead :-)

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