The game of the year

At the start of January, I did a daily blog about my pick of the moves of 2016: a dozen moves I had enjoyed seeing during 2016.

The idea of doing the posts only occurred to me in December; so my memory being what it is, my selection was likely skewed to more recent games. I have made a mental note to keep tabs of brilliant and other memorable moves throughout 2017.

But the game of the year is already decided. My school friend Nigel Short’s victory yesterday against World No 2 Fabiano Caruana in Gibraltar.

Start of the game, photo by John Saunders on Gibraltar chess website

I look forward to seeing analysis of the game, but very briefly:

Fabiano played 16..Ne7, and Nigel took the d4 pawn

Nigel was able to coordinate his pieces so that he preserved his extra pawn.

Later, two moves stand out:

Position before 36 c6!!

and a few moves later

Position before 39 Nd7!!

Such moves require deep calculation, and great to see Nigel can still play so well.

And at the end of the game, with Jovanka Houska in the commentary box.

After the game had ended, photo again by John Saunders

A wonderful game, a joy to see.

The only way in which this game won’t be my game of the year in 2017 is if Nigel wins an even bigger scalp, or plays another even more fabulous game.