It's been a long break since the last Game of the Month (probably because no KCC member has actually played a decent game!), but we're back with an absolute wowzer, which deserves to be a Game of the Year, not just a Game of the Month.
Now, those of you who regularly peruse the chess news pages of various websites may have spotted that a rather spectacular game from the Meltwater Champions Tour Final between Super-GMs Duda and Giri was voted Game of the Year in 2022 on chess.com. It was a rather exciting encounter, that's for sure, as you can see below.
Absolutely brilliant stuff, but even though KCC operates at a slightly less exalted level than this, the odd moment of genius can still suddenly erupt from nowhere to enrich the game of chess and weave another stitch into its rich historical tapestry. And that is what happened on December 22nd, 2022 at The Ale Rooms in Kenilworth, when - on the last Thursday gathering of the year - Paul unleashed a game of such ferocity that I reckon it blew his hapless opponent (Joshua), in the words of Warren Zevon, "from there to Johannesburg". Or possibly Maidstone or Manchester. But definitely a long way from Kenilworth!
As Paul so modestly says in his comment, " A pleasing finish". Understatement or what?!
I can only assume that the voters on chess.com had not seen this game, because if they had it would surely have given Jan Krzysztof a good run for his money in the Game of the Year poll. It's not only Super-GMs who can sacrifice a rook and a queen, you know. The KCC blog might just have to concede to chess.com as regards the number of visitors but there is nothing to chose between the two as regards the prestige of their respective GotY awards! It's a bit like the Oscars and the BAFTAs, I reckon.
What a shame that we so seldom get a chance to see Paul produce this sort of chessboard magic in a Kenilworth team. If he can do this in a 3 mins + 2 secs Blitz game, what might he produce given a whole 80 minutes + 10 secs??
I've already telegraphed this week's song, and here it is. The story of "Norway's bravest son", who rather surprisingly turns out to be called Roland and not Magnus!
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