February 2010 Best Games

Hello all!

As happens every month, a few days ago I received a nice email from IM Maxim Notkin from chesspro.ru with the best games of February, asking me to choose my top 10. I was so glad to see that among those 20 games there were 2 beautiful games by chess ladies.

Here they are, for you to enjoy (copy and paste the moves into my PGNPLAYER)

[Event "Bundesliga 2009-10"]

[Site "Trier GER"]

[Date "2010.2.28"]

[Round "11"]

[White "Degtiarev, E."]

[Black "Muzychuk, A."]

[Result "0-1"]

[Eco "A81"]

[Annotator ""]

[Source ""]

1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.O-O O-O 6.c4 d6 7.Nc3 e6

8.Re1 Ne4 9.Qc2 Nxc3 10.Qxc3 Nc6 11.Rd1 Qe7 12.Qa3 a5 13.Bg5

Qe8 14.c5 h6 15.Bd2 Qe7 16.cxd6 cxd6 17.h4 Bd7 18.Rac1 Rfc8 19.Be1

Be8 20.Qd3 e5 21.dxe5 dxe5 22.e4 Bf7 23.Qb1 Be6 24.h5 f4 25.gxf4

Rf8 26.Bd2 exf4 27.hxg6 Ne5 28.Nxe5 Bxe5 29.f3 Rf6 30.Bc3 Qc5+

31.Kh1 Rxg6 32.Bd4 Qe7 33.Bxe5 Qh4+ 34.Kg1 Rxg2+ 35.Kxg2 Bh3+

36.Kh1 Bg4+ 37.Kg2 Qg3+ 38.Kf1 Qxf3+ 39.Kg1 Qg3+ 40.Kf1 Bh3+ 0-1

[Event "Sicilian Theme Match"]

[Site "Hilton Head USA"]

[Date "2010.2.23"]

[Round "2"]

[White "Polgar, Ju"]

[Black "Kaidanov, G."]

[Result "1-0"]

[Eco "B78"]

[Annotator ""]

[Source ""]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3

Nc6 8.Qd2 O-O 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.O-O-O Rc8 11.Bb3 Ne5 12.Kb1 Re8 13.h4

h5 14.g4 hxg4 15.h5 Nxh5 16.Rdg1 e6 17.Bh6 Qf6 18.fxg4 Bxh6 19.Qxh6

Qg7 20.Qd2 Nf6 21.g5 Nh5 22.Nce2 Nc4 23.Bxc4 Rxc4 24.b3 Rc5 25.Ng3

Nxg3 26.Rxg3 Rec8 27.Rgh3 e5 28.Rh4 exd4 29.Qh2 Kf8 30.Qxd6+

Kg8 31.Qxd7 d3 32.c4 Qc3 33.R4h2 b5 34.e5 Qxe5 35.Rh7 R5c7 36.Qd6 1-0

Also, Maxim sent me the top games of the year 2009, you can view them here. It's nice to see that the win by Judit Polgar over Boris Gelfand is in this list.

[Event "World Cup"]

[Site "Khanty-Mansiysk RUS"]

[Date "2009.11.28"]

[Round "3.2"]

[White "Polgar,Ju"]

[Black "Gelfand,B"]

[Result "1-0"]

[Eco "C24"]

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Qe2 Be7 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Bb3 d6 7.O-O

Nbd7 8.c3 a5 9.a4 b5 10.Bc2 Ba6 11.axb5 cxb5 12.Nbd2 Qc7 13.d4

a4 14.Bd3 Rfb8 15.Nh4 g6 16.f4 exf4 17.Ndf3 Nh5 18.Bd2 Nb6 19.g4

fxg3 20.Ng5 Nc4 21.Nf5 Bxg5 22.Bxg5 f6 23.Bh4 gxh2+ 24.Qxh2 Rf8

25.Be2 gxf5 26.Bxh5 fxe4 27.Qf4 f5 28.Kh1 Kh8 29.Rg1 Rf7 30.Bxf7

Qxf7 31.Qh6 Rf8 32.Rg6 1-0

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com