From Anand to Zhongyi
To close the book on 2017, we review your picks for the most remarkable moves, endgames, games, and players of the year gone by. It was an incredibly full year of chess globally, and yet 2018 — featuring the Candidates tournament and the World Championship match, plus the Chess Olympiad in addition to the regular slate of annual tournaments — is shaping up to be even better!
Now, on to the winners...
Move of the year
This category was very close, but ultimately the startling pawn sacrifice 33...f6 !! by Narayanan Sunilduth Lyna came out on top. A surprise clearance operation, followed by a mating attack, made this move and combination a wonder to behold.
Naranyan Sunilduth Lyna in 2015 | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Zug des Jahres 2017 /
Move of the year 2017
| | | |
|---|
| Naryanan Sunilduth Lyna: 33...f6!! | 83 |
| 30% |
| Viswanathan Anand: 22.exf6!! | 74 |
| 27% |
| Vera Nebolsina: 26.c5!! | 51 |
| 18% |
| Sabrina Vega Gutierrez: 28...Txg2!! | 32 |
| 11% |
| Gata Kamsy: 23...c4!! | 22 |
| 8% |
| Boris Savchenko: 24...Nb3!! | 10 |
| 3% |
See all nominations for "move of the year".
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| Swiercz,D | 2645 | Sunilduth Lyna,N | 2524 | 0–1 | 2017 | C54 | Aeroflot Open A 2017 | 4.18 |
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The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.
Endgame of the year:
Magnus Carlsen vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Sinquefield Cup, Round 4
By just a three point margin, ChessBase members selected this endgame from St. Louis over Nakamura vs. Giri in the first round of Norway Chess. Our round report dubbed Maxime "Vachier-Lagreat" for his win over the World Champion.
Endspiel des Jahres 2017 / Endgame of the year 2017
| | | |
|---|
| Carlsen-Vachier Lagrave | 41 |
| 27% |
| Nakamura-Giri | 36 |
| 24% |
| Yu-Zvjaginsev | 26 |
| 17% |
| Carlsen-Aronian | 25 |
| 16% |
| Vachier Lagrave-So | 11 |
| 7% |
| So-Jobava | 9 |
| 6% |
See all nominations for "endgame of the year".
Confounding even the Champ | Photo: Lennart Ootes, GrandChessTour.org
| Replay and check the LiveBook here |
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48...Be2 49.Bxd8 Bxf3 50.Bxb6 axb6 51.Bc6 Be4 52.a7 Rd8 53.Nd6+ Rxd6 54.Bxe4 Rd8 55.a8Q Rxa8+ 56.Bxa8 Ne5 57.Kb3 f4 58.Kc2 Kg7 59.Kd2 Ng6 60.Kd3 Nxh4 61.Ke4 f3 62.Ke3 Kf6 63.b4 c4 64.Bd5 Kf5 65.Bxc4 Kg4 66.Kf2 Ng6 67.Be6+ Kf4 68.Bf7 Ne5 69.Bxh5 Nd3+ 70.Kf1 Kg3 71.Bf7 Nf2 0–1
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
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- Drag the split bars between window panes.
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| Carlsen,M | 2822 | Vachier Lagrave,M | 2791 | 0–1 | 2017 | A34 | 5th Sinquefield Cup 2017 | 4.1 |
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GM Karsten Mueller has done three videos on "good night vs bad bishop" among other minor piece endgames, all of which are available for ChessBase Premium members. Here's one:
Rules of thumb are the key to everything when you are having to set the correct course in a complex endgame. In this final DVD of his series on the endgame, our endgame specialist introduces you to the most important of these rules of thumb.
Game of the year
Bai Junshi vs. Ding Liren, Chinese Team Championship, Round 18
We perhaps biased this one by highlighting this brilliancy when it was played in November, but still, few would protest the overwhelming reader's choice, which nearly tripled the next-closest vote tally.
Die Partie des Jahres 2017/ The best game of the year 2017
| | | |
|---|
| Bai-Ding | 105 |
| 38% |
| Aronian-Carlsen | 36 |
| 13% |
| Wagner-Nikolic | 33 |
| 12% |
| Anand-Caruana | 30 |
| 10% |
| Kramnik-Harikrishna | 16 |
| 5% |
| Morozevich-Ponomariov | 14 |
| 5% |
| Caruana-Carlsen | 12 |
| 4% |
| Xiong-So | 11 |
| 4% |
| Aronian-Naiditsch | 9 |
| 3% |
| Rapport-Wei | 7 |
| 2% |
See all nominations for "game of the year".
| Replay and check the LiveBook here |
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 0-0 5.Bg5 c5 6.e3 cxd4 7.Qxd4 Nc6 8.Qd3 h6 9.Bh4 d5 10.Rd1 g5 11.Bg3 Ne4 12.Nd2 Nc5 13.Qc2 d4 14.Nf3 e5 15.Nxe5 dxc3 16.Rxd8 cxb2+ 17.Ke2 Rxd8 18.Qxb2 Na4 19.Qc2 Nc3+ 20.Kf3 Rd4 21.h3 h5 22.Bh2 g4+ 23.Kg3 Rd2 24.Qb3 Ne4+ 25.Kh4 Be7+ 26.Kxh5 Kg7 27.Bf4 Bf5 28.Bh6+ Kh7 29.Qxb7 Rxf2 30.Bg5 Rh8 31.Nxf7 Bg6+ 32.Kxg4 Ne5+ 0–1
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
| Bai,J | 2585 | Ding,L | 2759 | 0–1 | 2017 | E21 | CHN-chT | 18.1 |
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Female player of the year: Hou Yifan
Yifan, who was also nominated in the overall "player of the year" poll, crushed her compatriot Ju Wenjun in your choice for female player of the year, despite the latter's strong finish in the World Blitz and Rapid Championships. Hou overcame the scandal surrounding her thrown game protest at the start of 2017 in Gibraltar, and won largely thanks to her standout performance in Biel.
Anna Muzychuk was also a big vote-getter, with some calling our her principled stand against the awarding of the Blitz and Rapid Championships to Saudi Arabia.
Die Spielerin des Jahres 2017 / The Female Player of the year 2017
| | | |
|---|
| Hou Yifan | 108 |
| 41% |
| Anna Muzychuk | 60 |
| 22% |
| Ju Wenjun | 33 |
| 12% |
| Zhansaya Abdumalik | 21 |
| 8% |
| Aleksandra Goryachkina | 11 |
| 4% |
| Alexandra Kosteniuk | 10 |
| 3% |
| Harika Dronavalli | 8 |
| 3% |
| Antonatea Stefanova | 5 |
| 1% |
| Lei Tingjie | 5 |
| 1% |
| Tan Zhongyi | 0 |
| 0% |
Players of the year | Photos: Pascal Simon
And finally...
Player of the year: Levon Aronian
The Armenian's strong 2017 results — winning Norway Chess, the Grenke Chess Classic, the World Cup and the Grand Prix in Palma de Mallorca — propelled him to clear first place in our survey. The World Cup win meant that he will also be making a return to the Candidates Tournament, coming up in March in Berlin. And last but not least, he married his long-time fiancée Arianne Caoili, making 2017 a truly momentus year!
Spieler des Jahres / Player of the year
| | | |
|---|
| Levon Aronian | 174 |
| 42% |
| Magnus Carlsen | 77 |
| 18% |
| Viswanthan Anand | 53 |
| 12% |
| Shakriyar Mamedyarov | 25 |
| 6% |
| Praggnanandhaa R | 20 |
| 4% |
| Hou Yifan | 18 |
| 4% |
| Ding Liren | 14 |
| 3% |
| Vladimir Fedoseev | 14 |
| 3% |
| Richard Rapport | 8 |
| 1% |
| Wei Yi | 8 |
| 1% |
Yes, he's player of the year...but only on the 64 squares | Photo: Champord.am
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