What's NewComing SoonOpeningMiddlegameEndgameSets/BoardsDiscountsDVDsDownloads
Yearbook Novelty of the Year 2011
The Chess Player's Guide to Opening News
In the third edition of our Novelty of the Year contest, 577 valid votes were cast for the six nominees (see below).
Levon Aronian (Game 1) scored a runaway victory with 225 votes, substantially more than the previous winners Stellwagen (2009) and Anand (2010).

Congratulations Levon Aronian!

Among the voters, a one-year subscription to the Yearbook has been raffled. The winner is Flavio Brugnoli from Torino, Italy.
Game 1. 10.h2-h4 in Aronian-Harikrishna, Ningbo Wch-tt 2011 (Yearbook 100, Forum item by Peter Boel, page 31). This pawn thrust on the flank opened a Pandora's Box of sharp new possibilities in the venerable Lasker Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined.
Game 2. 12.Nd4xe6 in Sochacki-Chabradze, Gorges 2011 (Yearbook 100, Survey by Léopold Le Ruyet and Wojtek Sochacki, page 50). This crushing knight sac looks like a breakthrough - will it relegate the Danner Variation (8...Qa5) of the 6.Bg5 Najdorf to the dustbin?
Game 3. 12.b2-b3 in Bezgodov-Kalmachevskikh, Khanty-Mansiysk 2011 (Yearbook 100, Survey by Andrey Obodchuk, page 65). This surprising move conquers the important diagonal a3-f8 in the Accelerated Dragon and thereby starts a vicious attack for White.
Game 4. 15.Nc3-b1 in Topalov-Gelfand, Monaco rapid 2011 (Yearbook 100, Survey by Abhijeet Gupta, page 180). In the Moscow Slav Topalov continued the discussion with this puzzling novelty, making Black's choices difficult in a hair-raising position.
Game 5. 15…Bh4-g5 in Vallejo Pons-Morozevich, Reggio Emilia 2011 (Survey by René Olthof in Yearbook 101, page 35). In the fashionable Delayed Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Najdorf Sicilian, Morozevich revives the formerly rejected 13...Ne4 with this move, which seems to keep Black alive.
Game 6. 5.Qd1-c2 in Topalov-Kamsky, Kazan m 2011 (Survey by Vladimir Georgiev and Petar Arnaudov in Yearbook 101, page 234). This enigmatic queen move has set a whole new trend in the Anti-Grünfeld.