Is the Game of the Month December staged?

They were obviously friends, they have played a lot of (casual) games together.

Here is the game:

Clearly scripted, cool idea and finish, however I would not have considered it for GOTM.

why do you think its scripted?

@system72 said:

why do you think its scripted?

Look at the game chat. This is a good example to why I give a **** about such purely subjective contests

Here's a move I don't understand. Perhaps my rating is too low.

Move 37 of White is Nxc7. SF says a mistake. Nxd6 should be the move for White.
How can Black premove Rxc7?

Probably. You don't see a 1900 beating a 2500 that often.

Well my game wasn't scripted when I won GoTM July '25. In general it's a good contest and I would encourage players to submit their games

Here yeah, seems scripted.

If that game was scripted, than that casts a doubt on all Game of the Month.

Only the two players can know if there was collusion in this game - everyone else can only speculate.

Given this thread, I can easily imagine that some people will pick up on this "great idea", so we'll probably see many contrived masterpieces in the Game of the Month from now on.

If you see the crossable almost every single game is a draw, and this game a 1900 somehow won,