Daniel Stellwagen has been voted the winner of the 2009 Yearbook Novelty of the Year by readers of the New In Chess website. The Dutch grandmaster earned 350 Euros for his novelty 24...Qf3 in the King's Indian against Loek van Wely at the NH Chess Tournament in Amsterdam in August 2009.
Van Wely and Stellwagen getting ready for what will be a spectacular and theoretically highly important King's Indian at the Rising Stars vs Experience tournament | Photo © tournament website In a poll at
www.newinchess.com Stellwagen's novelty got 52.8% of the votes - an absolute majority. Second, according to NIC's readers, was Jonny Hector for his new idea of sacrificing a pawn for good play with black in the Slav, by playing 12...0-0-0 and 13...Nc5. 24.5% of the readers voted for Hector's novelty. Vladimir Kramnik earned 17% of the votes for his novelty 17.Qh6 in the Vienna Gambit against Naiditsch in Dortmund, 2009, and Abhijeet Gupta came fourth with 5.7% of the votes for his 18...f5!? in the Marshall Gambit.
A raffle among the voters for the winning novelty earned Larry Rydel from Lander, Wyoming (USA) a one-year subscription to the Yearbook. The New In Chess staff congratulates Messrs Stellwagen and Rydel. Below you can find the relevant games.
Game with annotations from NIC Yearbook
Game viewer by ChessTempoLinks
Daniel Stellwagen has been voted the winner of the 2009 Yearbook Novelty of the Year by readers of the New In Chess website. The Dutch grandmaster earned 350 Euros for his novelty 24...Qf3 in the King's Indian against Loek van Wely at the NH Chess Tournament in Amsterdam in August 2009.Van Wely and Stellwagen getting ready for what will be a spectacular and theoretically highly important King's Indian at the Rising Stars vs Experience tournament | Photo © tournament website 
In a poll at www.newinchess.com Stellwagen's novelty got 52.8% of the votes - an absolute majority. Second, according to NIC's readers, was Jonny Hector for his new idea of sacrificing a pawn for good play with black in the Slav, by playing 12...0-0-0 and 13...Nc5. 24.5% of the readers voted for Hector's novelty. Vladimir Kramnik earned 17% of the votes for his novelty 17.Qh6 in the Vienna Gambit against Naiditsch in Dortmund, 2009, and Abhijeet Gupta came fourth with 5.7% of the votes for his 18...f5!? in the Marshall Gambit.
A raffle among the voters for the winning novelty earned Larry Rydel from Lander, Wyoming (USA) a one-year subscription to the Yearbook. The New In Chess staff congratulates Messrs Stellwagen and Rydel. Below you can find the relevant games.