Merry Christmas!

Same as every year this time I'm going to talk about 2009 and give my "Game of 2008" and "Worst Game of 2008"

I didn't play very much rated chess this year, but when I did play it was of high quality (for me). I would like to play some more this year. In 2009, I'm going to talk K into playing some more and bringing back the King's Gambit or the Scotch Gambit. Players at my level can't defend so why not make them?

Game of the Year

I went over my games this morning and I had some fun games in 2008. My favourite though, for strength of opponent was the Panov v. MS in the Active Tournament in Kitchener, despite the error on move 31.

C - MS
B13 - Panov
Active Kitchener, ON (3), 06.09.2008

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nf3 Bg4 7.Be3 e6 8.cxd5 exd5 9.Be2 Bd6 10.0-0 0-0 11.a3 a6 12.h3 Bh5 13.Rc1 Rc8 14.Na4 Re8 15.Nc5 Bxc5 16.dxc5 Ne4 17.Re1 Ng3 18.Bxa6 bxa6 19.fxg3 d4 20.Bf4 Rxe1+ 21.Qxe1 Bxf3 22.gxf3 Qd5 23.Qe4 Qxe4 24.fxe4 f6 25.Kf2 Kf7 26.b4 Ne5 27.Bxe5 fxe5 28.Ke2 Ke6 29.Kd3 Rf8 30.Ke2 g6 31.Rf1 Rb8 32.Kd3 a5 33.Kc4 axb4 34.axb4 Rd8 35.b5 d3 36.b6 d2 37.Rd1 Rd4+ 38.Kb5 Kd7 39.c6+ Kc8 40.Kc5 Kb8 41.Rf1 42.Rf8+ Rd8 43.b7+ Kb8 44.Rxd8+
"The MS game showed mature play on your part considering it was an active. Nicely played endgame." (HJ) 1-0

The worst game of the year was probably my first loss v. K in our match. He played quite well, but I played terribly...no plan and he manhandled me...although the same could be said of the last game of the match where he transposed a c3-sicilian into a French Advance and I fell apart

C - K
D36 - QGD : Exchange
Match Owen Sound, ON (1), 03.05.2008

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.Qc2 Be7 7.e3 g6 8.Bd3 0-0 9.Nge2 Nh5 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.Ng3 Nxg3 12.hxg3 Bg4 13.Ne2 Nd7 14.f3 Qxe3 15.fxg4 Rfe8 16.Qd2 Qxg3+ 17.Kd1 Qxg4 18.Kc2 Nf6 19.Raf1 Ne4 20.Qh6 Ng5 21.Kc3 c5 22.Rf4 cxd4+ 23.Rxd4 Rac8+ 24.Kd2 Rxe2+ 25.Bxe2 Qxd4+ 26.Ke1 Rc1+ 0-1